Reinvesting in Iowans

Borrower Benefits

To assist borrowers during difficult times, the Iowa Student Loan board of directors voted in 2009 to maintain and expand financial benefits offered to federal student loan borrowers. For the 2009 – 2010 academic year, Iowa Student Loan provided an allowance equivalent to 0.25% of the loan balance to most of its serviced lenders, who in turn apply that amount to Federal Stafford Loan origination fees. Reducing the origination fee in this way allows students access to more of their funds from the beginning of the loan period.

Iowa Student Loan also added a benefit to Federal Stafford and PLUS (for both parents and graduate student borrowers) loans for the 2009 – 2010 year. Borrowers will receive a 0.25% interest rate reduction on their loans once they enter repayment if they enroll in Iowa Student Loan's automatic payment program, where loan payments are automatically deducted from checking or savings accounts each month. This allows borrowers to reduce the amount they will pay in interest over the life of the loan.

Nursing and Teacher Education Loan Forgiveness Programs

Encouraging Iowa nursing and education students to enter critical job shortage areas in Iowa is important to the economic development of the state. To aid in this effort, Iowa Student Loan funds loan forgiveness programs to assist these students with their loan debt. Sustaining the Iowa Student Loan Nursing and Teacher Education Loan Forgiveness programs and ensuring they remain successful in the years to come is vital to Iowa's students as well as Iowa's communities.

By the end of 2009, Iowa Student Loan had made awards to 875 nursing applicants and 626 teacher applicants. The organization also had forgiven more than $1.5 million in student loans for Iowa nurses and teachers entering job shortage areas since the programs' inceptions in 2004 and 2006, respectively. The programs, which supplement loan forgiveness programs offered by state and federal agencies, are accomplishing their initial goal: helping to keep these important professionals in Iowa to serve Iowans

Iowa College Access Network

For more than a decade, Iowa Student Loan has supported the Iowa College Access Network^® (ICAN) financially and with in-kind services. In September 2009, the Iowa Student Loan board voted to incorporate ICAN as an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational foundation. As its own entity with its own independent governing board, ICAN continues to offer free college planning services to help Iowa students and families. Iowa Student Loan continues to be the organization's lead funder.

ICAN helps students and their families plan for, apply to, pay for and succeed in college, with secondary school students being the primary audience. Annually, ICAN provides its free services to more than 30,000 Iowa students and parents.