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How big an issue is student debt? Jennie Hayes, J.D. ’13 had no
undergraduate student loan debt and also received the Public
Service Scholarship which paid her third year of tuition at Stetson.
Even so, her student loans amounted to
six figures. Now an assistant state
attorney in the 18th Judicial Circuit,
she is thankful for the Public Service
Loan Forgiveness program as well as
for the scholarship.
One reason she is grateful is that, like
Tolliver, she dreamed of becoming an
attorney since grade school. But she always
knew she was destined to become a prosecutor
and she’s very pleased to have become one. She can tell she is
helping, such as when she worked recently with a woman who
was the victim of a carjacking, or when she advises law enforcement
officers on procedures that will make their cases stand up
in court.
“I do feel that I am making a difference and that was important
to me,” said Hayes. “I couldn’t do a job where I personally didn’t
feel the fulfillment of making some sort of impact on people.”
She added that the camaraderie in her office is exceptional.
She is not only on the receiving end of Stetson scholarships.
Hayes was among the Class of 2013 students who established the
Dean Bruce R. Jacob Scholarship.
Getting the Public Service Scholarship at Stetson helped Hayes
financially, but it was more than that. It felt like a vote of confidence.
“It gave me a sense of pride that I got that scholarship,” said Hayes.
“It’s almost like the whole school is behind you… and that gave me
more motivation to want to succeed as a public interest attorney.”
Tolliver, the assistant public defender, said he also feels thankful for
receiving the Public Service Scholarship.
He said his parents taught him that “if you can do something that you
love and that you’re passionate about, a lot of life’s joy comes from that.”
That’s how he feels about his job. He finds it inspiring to fight for his
clients’ freedom.
Hughes said the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program also is
a huge help for many students, because it can eliminate student
debt for those who spend 10 years in public service careers and
make 120 consecutive on-time payments.
But federal officials have proposed cutting back the program or
eliminating it. “That would really change things radically,”
Hughes said.
The importance of scholarships at Stetson is one issue on which
the prosecution and the defense agree.
“I know some people have well north of $100,000 in student loan
debt,” said Bernie McCabe, B.A. ’69/J.D. ’72, state attorney for
the 6th Circuit. “What I can pay them to start off is not enough to
pay off student loan debt, have a house, have a family.”
Some assistant state attorneys, as well as some
assistant public defenders, have even taken
second jobs. McCabe’s office reviews any
such jobs for his staff, but he still
considers the practice problematic. “Any
second job might impair their ability to
do this job,” said McCabe. “Because
when they start, we don’t expect it to be a
nine-to-five, 40-hour-a-week operation.
You have to learn everything.”
McCabe said one of his newer attorneys is married with three kids
and has more than $200,000 in student loans. Even though the
wife earns a good salary in her job, McCabe said, “That’s going to
be tough. That’s going to be really, really tough when I’m starting
him out at $45,000 a year.”
Some in his office defer their loans for three years and by that
time are earning roughly $57,000, but then they need to begin
making payments. “That’s where we lose a lot of people.”
McCabe, a member of the Stetson Law Hall of Fame, is grateful
to people who donate to law school scholarships. Without them,
he wonders how law schools could even survive.
“It’s very important to me as somebody who needs to hire a
bunch of law students every year that I have them coming from
quality institutions where I can feel that they’ve been educated
properly,” said McCabe. “So it’s important to me that law schools
survive, and under the current state of affairs, I think the
scholarships are the only way we can do that.”
Dillinger feels the same way. “In order for us to keep a highquality
level of representation in the criminal justice system, we
need scholarships so that these lawyers aren’t debt-ridden and
driven out of the public practice of law.”
WANT TO GIVE?
To contribute to the Stetson Law General Scholarship Fund
please visit stetson.edu/law/give
OR
to learn more about establishing an endowed scholarship
fund, please contact Kevin Hughes in the Office of Development
and Alumni Relations at khughes@law.stetson.edu
or 727-562-7318.
Bernie McCabe
Jennie Hayes
/give
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