ABSTRACT
Because of my age in 1996 (47)—in concert with the intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989, 2016) of my gender, parents’ educational and socioeconomic levels, welfare status, single parenthood, and other sociopolitical factors—I did not incur my Student Loan Debt (SLD) by design, but rather as a last resort. In that year, I learned that the Clinton administration passed a five-year limitation for welfare benefit recipients (Edelman, 1997). Desperate for socioeconomic uplift, I sought higher education as a vehicle for survival and providing a better life for my three children and me. Although I was on welfare, I had no outstanding debt prior to entering graduate school in the fall of 1996.
