Hi all…my name is Tiana and I’m the new summer intern at the YDA in DC.  Having just arrived in the city (red-eye last Wednesday) and jumping right into the mix (start day last Thursday—yikes!)  the first project that I’ve been working on is college affordability.

Having not been super familiar with the reform bills in Congress before starting, it of course took a little reading up to really understand what this campaign is all about.   It didn’t take long to realize that both the bills in House and Senate propose some substantial (and meaningful) reforms to the current system.  I was sold as soon as I read about the proposed 2-page “EZ-FAFSA” but of course cutting student interest rates in half, increasing Pell grant scholarships, and starting to hold colleges accountable for their ever rising costs weren’t bad selling points either.  Clearly there are the usual opponents— some Republicans and huge lending firms and private banks who rather see their kickbacks increase than help America’s students, but I’m pretty sure that this is going to be one of many occasions to come where the voices on the right side of the issue (and by right, I of course me correct) will prevail. 

I encourage you to read up on college affordability and take action.  I definitely already wrote my congresspersons (all three of them, with faxes, at the simple click of a button) and you should too.  If not for the future of you having an easier FAFSA (or countless other benefits from this reform), do it for me and the at least 12 more I will have to fill out when my siblings get into college and my mother decides that it’s a good idea for me to fill all of theirs out too.