My education really started in juvenile prison where I finished high school a year early. While working full-time as a truck mechanic I attended Miami Dade Community College. I fell in love with education and decided to become a teacher. I aimed to become a Professor of Education, inspiring students to reach their highest potential. I had no money or family or rich connections but I could take out US loans. And big ones, to fund two masters, and a doctorate degree focused on Education Leadership and Innovation, Language Education, and Children’s Human Rights.
As an academic and single dad paying European taxes, I could never pay off my student loans of over $150,000. Like many, I had to choose between paying down student debt or paying the rent for me and my four-year-old daughter.
After my own default which ruined my fiat credit for life I learned more about the size of the crisis. Over 46 million Americans are struggling with student debt, at a cost of over $1.6 trillion. People with large student debt or default are unable to fund businesses or the economy, unable to focus on their family – and with one million defaults each year – ruining their credit for life and many other negative consequences. The price for getting an education?
I’ve been a longtime supporter of Digital Education for All, Open Access Education, Student Empowerment, and am recognized by the UN for my Climate Change courses that expand worldwide. Watch my TEDx talk back in 2011 when I took a stance for academic freedom and network neutrality in the face of a powerful dictatorship. Should I have bad credit for life? How about your local nurse or pre-school teacher?
I know first hand the struggles that people face because of the failures of the fiat system to provide Student Aid for society’s most vulnerable. That’s why I’ve created the FAFCSA, because there’s 46 million of us just in America, and another billion people who need some way to pay for their education and make the world a better place.
This site is for people to share their real world stories with those in the Crypto and NFT communities, because there’s a lot of love and empathy going on in the crypto space along with the well-known financial and creative genius happening. Catch me talking with blockchain and crypto experts as part of CryptoMondays, Paris NFT Day, and NFT.NYC or working with innovators to #TokenizeStudentDebt.
My student debt is Verified and our volunteers will verify the debt of everyone’s profiles and their wallet addresses before posting their story.
Amount Needed: $160,000
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