After Brian was finished with graduate school, we were $120,000 in debt. sigh. We did what everyone else does, and consolidated our loans and began making our minimum monthly payments. We knew that we didn’t want that huge debt hanging over us for decades, so Brian got a job working at a Native American health clinic. The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) has a wonderful loan repayment program that we were able to get into because the health clinic was considered “underserved”.
Basically, he commits to a certain period of time working at a specific location, and the government gives us a lump sum of money to go toward paying off our student loans. His first commitment was for 2 years and we were given $50,000. After that, his contract was renewed annually for $30,000 and then $20,000. If one clinic isn’t working out, you have the option to transfer to another clinic as long as it is also on their list of approved sites. According to the website, “This program is open to licensed primary care medical, dental, and mental and behavioral health providers.”
Now, there’s a reason why these specific clinics/sites are on the underserved list and they aren’t exactly ideal, but we have paid off a large portion of our student debt because we were/are willing to go where others might not. For us, it is much better to sacrifice now then to have the burden of debt our whole lives.
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