Overview & Motive:
- Significance: This project will meaningfully expand upon the class discussions we have had and readings we have done throughout the semester by providing insight into a topic we are not covering, but which still depicts the nightmarish realities of life for many Americans.
- Relation to English 332: This project will meaningfully expand upon the class discussions we have had and readings we have done throughout the semester by providing insight into a topic we are not covering, but which still depicts the nightmarish realities of life for many Americans. We discussed the troublesome nature of consumer credit at the beginning of the semester, and this project relates to the conversations we had about how people feel pressured to take on large amounts of debt in order to create the appearance of having achieved the American Dream.
- Main message/vision: My main goal for this project is to inform students about the potential risks involved in taking out student loans, and equip them with some of the tools necessary to make wise financial decisions throughout their academic careers. I also hope to encourage students to advocate for themselves on this issue so that they do not find themselves in a difficult financial situation later in life.
Critical (Scholarly) Commentary:
- Class text: Calder, Lendol. “Introduction: Credit, Consumer Culture, and the American Dream.” Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit, Princeton University Pres, 1999, pp. 3-33: This article discusses the ways in which consumerism and the process of borrowing money to pay for expenses finances the American Dream for many citizens. The language within the piece was useful for deepening my own understanding. Calder also untangles the paradox of debt both creating and preventing opportunities for success, which is an important element for this project and something which incorporated into my creative piece with the end result section.
- Source one: Martin, Andrew, and Andrew W Lehren. “A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College.” The New York Times, 12 May 2012: The first external source I utilized for this project is one by Andrew Martin and Andrew Lehren of The New York Times titled “A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Costs of College”. Within the article, the authors delve into the nuances of the student loan debt crisis and how students become burdened with great amounts of debt. They write that “many students and parents don’t have a firm understanding of the cost of attending college, or the amount of debt they will incur. And most colleges aren’t much help”. The article clearly explicates the severity of the current crisis and provides important factual insight which was helpful for contextualizing my project.
- Source two: Nelson, Libby. “Everything You Need to Know about Student Loan Debt.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 10 June 2015: This article is essentially an in-depth primer on this entire topic, and discusses the details of how much student debt there is in this country (as of 2015), why so much money is owed, and what it means to default on a student loan. All of the information here was useful for my purposes, and provided a lot of tidbits which I incorporated into the project. More specifically, the subsection regarding bankruptcy which states that “getting rid of a student loan by declaring bankruptcy is nearly impossible, and most people don’t try” is extremely helpful. This information was useful in creating end result #2 in the quiz where someone attempts and fails to rid themselves of student loan debt by declaring bankruptcy.
Creative Commentary:
- Similar projects: I was inspired by Death, Sex & Money’s two part podcast series titled “Our Student Loan Secrets”. Although the formatting of my project differs greatly from theirs, the message remains similar – student loan debt is a problem shared by many people, is often the result of a lack of information, and is daunting. More information about this resource can be found on the “Resources” subpage of my blog.
- Specific Choices: The multimedia aspect of this project is important because it allows participants to physically interact with the information and develop an understanding of the complexities and burdens of student loan debt. By developing a creative piece, the project will be something tangible for the audience and hopefully allow for a more meaningful interaction with the information and research. The format of the project (a teen-magazine style flow-chart quiz with an informational spin) should be somewhat familiar to the audience, so they will be able to engage with the work without confusion. I color-coded the quiz and the informational key to make the project easy to navigate. I also included reviews from some of my friends who are students to give viewers an idea of what their reaction to the project may be, and to convey how applicable the project has been to people’s real life experiences. The specific endings I chose covered a wide variety of possible scenarios for people with (and without) student loan debt – I wanted to provide these options so that the project feels relevant and plausible to as many people as possible.
- Vision of American Nightmares: Recently in the United States, people seeking college degrees have taken on extreme amounts of debt which they are unable to pay off after finishing their studies. This not only creates stress on individuals, but also harms the nation’s economy, because people with large amounts of student loan debt may refrain from further participation in consumer culture. The purpose of this project is to reveal the nightmarish realities about the funding of university education in the United States, particularly regarding student loan debt.
- Insights: If I had merely written about this issue, I might have made the information too complex for readers to properly understand. The information I found about student loan debt is often confusing, and I wanted viewers to come away from the project feeling informed, so I avoided the traditional essay approach. The tone of this project may be disheartening for some viewers, but I hope that they will feel empowered enough by the new knowledge they have gained that they will not feel discouraged.
Contemporary American Dreams & Nightmares 