The Young are the Restless: Jennifer Pae

A 2005 graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Jennifer Pae understands first-hand the importance of making higher education more affordable.

The daughter of two immigrant parents, Pae was the first member of her family to attend college. In her senior year at UCSD, Pae became the university’s first Asian-American woman president, and openly acknowledges that without financial aid programs, this opportunity would not have existed. Nonetheless, Pae feels strongly that the current system has significant flaws and desperately needs reworking, “We need to educate prospective students about their options and assure them the best possible aid package. Right now, that isn’t happening.”

Like so many other young people around the nation, Jennifer Pae was faced with an overwhelming amount of debt. While the average student in the United States graduates college with approximately $20,000 in loans, Pae had to pay off about double that amount. Unfortunately, she was part of the 39% of student borrowers in this nation who graduate with unmanageable debt.

Pae pointed out that many of the University of California campuses are in some of the state’s most expensive cities, such as Los Angeles and San Diego. And all this occurs in the only state to receive a passing grade in the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s National Report Card on Higher Education in 2008.

While her position as a Residential Adviser allowed her to avoid housing costs, she still struggled with other expenses. “It became stressful to pay for books and you really begin to appreciate the grants you never have to pay back.”

After Pae’s struggles with student debt, she came to appreciate low interest loans, such as Perkins loans. “You become thankful for any grant money, or even low interest loans. These forms of aid need to be expanded so that more students can finish school and receive their diploma,” says Pae. In addition to her rising debt, Pae explained that her long hours at her job took away from her college experience, “My grades were hurt and I definitely had fewer opportunities to become involved on campus. That shouldn’t have to be the case.”

Every year, hundreds of thousands of young people are denied opportunities to further their studies because they simply cannot afford it. While she was able to graduate on time, many of Pae’s peers were forced to take time off from school or drop out altogether. “I’ve seen too many people [miss] opportunities to further their education because of tuition increases and inefficient aid packages,” says Pae. “We need to make sure we are investing in the young people of this nation.”

During her time as president of UCSD, Pae served on the board of the United States Students Association, where she fought tuition increases and advocated for the restructuring of the financial aid programs on both the state and federal levels.

Pae worked closely with the University of California Board of Regents and the University of California Students Association to ensure that young people were indeed being heard.

Upon graduation, she was set on continuing her advocacy work and thus decided to accept a position at USSA. It was during her time at USSA that the student loan scandals were revealed. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others launched investigations that exposed questionable relationships between institutions and student loan companies.

Pae worked hard to ensure that students were actually receiving the most efficient loan packages even as financial aid offices accepted bribes from private loan companies. Additionally, as the primary negotiator on behalf of students for the Department of Education, she worked to guarantee that the federal government was doing everything in their power to protect students financially. “I was committed to making sure that students all over the country knew their rights. I wanted to make sure that lenders [were] being held accountable.”

As a result of her dedication, Pae was appointed by the Department of Education onto a Committee on Student Loans and later testified before the Senate Banking Committee when the private student loan industry was accused of predatory lending against students.

Jennifer Pae is just one of millions of young people in the nation concerned about the future of the economy. “Young people must continue to build strong relationships and contact their elected officials. They need to remember their ability to shift the balance of power in this nation and their potential to make change.” However, each day that passes without young people taking action, the doors to higher education are closing for thousands of students. You can take action now at Campusprogress.org/StudentsOverBanks.

Adam Raphael is a former Campus Progress advocacy intern and a student at the University of Michigan.

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