http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/10/19/high-debt-unfulfilled-dreams/KuDKIWiyRO5E5HDpRpSLRO/story.html?event=event25..............Michele McDonald for the Globe....
"Hollywood dreaming, but a job at Kinko’s".....
"Michael DiGiacomo thought college was the answer.
After three years in the Army and five years in the Army National Guard, the Randolph native earned his associate’s degree in graphic design and then sought a bachelor’s in animation at the for-profit New England Institute of Art. He dreamed of working for a video game company, but school admissions staff said the degree would take him further, to Hollywood studios such as Pixar or Warner Brothers.
But a year after he enrolled at New England Institute of Art in 2006, he was tens of thousands of dollars in debt, still without an animation degree, and working at the counter of a FedEx Kinko’s copy center, for $15 an hour.
Mike DiGiacomo (with his daughter Mikayla) owes nearly $100,000 in loans for his studies at New England Institute of Art. He has not been able to get a job related to his degree.
Mike DiGiacomo (with his daughter Mikayla) owes nearly $100,000 in loans for his studies at New England Institute of Art. He has not been able to get a job related to his degree.
The New England Institute of Art in Brookline is a unit of the for-profit chain Education Management Corp. of Pittsburgh, which is under investigation in Massachusetts and 10 other states for its practices. Education Management Corp. did not respond to requests for comment.
With the G.I. bill covering some of his living costs, DiGiacomo enrolled at the school full time, taking out federal and private loans to cover the tuition. School officials would pull him out of class and tell him that if he did not sign paperwork for more loans, he could not return to class, DiGiacomo said.
He always signed, often without knowing what it was.
By 2006, DiGiacomo owed $80,000 in loans, including what he borrowed for his associate’s degree. Institute officials told him he had reached the limit of his credit and needed a cosigner to take more loans to finish the program, he said.
Unable to find one, he dropped out and went to work at FedEx Kinko’s, taking home about $1,500 a month.
DiGiacomo’s student loan bills began rolling in, totaling about $800 month. He quickly fell behind, and debt collectors followed. About $130 was garnished from his biweekly paycheck. His credit was in tatters.
While dating his future wife, Rhonda, DiGiacomo worried she would never marry him because of his financial problems. “I felt that she was going to look at me differently,” he said.
They married in 2012, and shortly afterward, DiGiacomo was laid off by FedEx. Several months ago, he found a contract job doing installation work for a lighting company that pays $18 an hour.
DiGiacomo owes nearly $100,000 in student loans, including interest. He was able to defer his federal loans of about $30,000 because he was unemployed, but soon must begin repayments. He has disputed private loans, writing to lenders that he did not know what he was agreeing to when he signed the loans.
DiGiacomo and his wife have a 2-year-old daughter.
“I would love to be able to start over; it’s one of those things I think about constantly,” he said. But “I have a family to provide for now, and no time to go back and start from scratch.”