Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 8, 1 August 2014 — OHA education loan enables Chaminade nursing student to graduate on time [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA education loan enables Chaminade nursing student to graduate on time

By Harold Nedd When Moani Vertido couldn't easily get a loan to pay her college tuition for her last semester in graduate school, the Chaminade

University alumna turned to one such program at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The 33-year-old aspiring nurse practitioner qualified for $6,300 at 4 percent, a low rate that she didn't qualify for at any loeal bank in Hawai'i. "The loan amount was enough to pay for my last semester," said Vertido, who earned her master's degree in nursing in 2012. "I needed the loan quickly to graduate." Over the next 16 months, OHA will be taking steps to stoke demand for its Mālama Loans. The program has set its sights on lending $10 million to Native Hawaiians who are

looking for financing help to start businesses, improve their homes, consolidate debts and eontinue their education. To help achieve that goal by the end of 2015, the loan program is preparing to launeh an aggressive marketing campaign centered largely on interest rates that will be decreased from 6.25 percent. The outreach is part of a broader effort to help improve a sense of eeonomie well-being among Native Hawaiian consumers. The outreach is also expected to help cement the program's status as a lender of last resort to Native Hawaiians, who are among those increasingly getting squeezed by tight lending standards at Hawai'i banks. Efforts to ramp up the program follow a sharp decline in lending that was partly attributed to the pro-

gram's brief suspension last year. For example, the program this year made five loans worth $70,058 to Native Hawaiians seeking hnaneial aid to continue their education. By comparison, the program in 2013 made 41 education loans worth $672,848.

The program's suspension last year was necessary to make changes meant to help keep it solvent. That meant increasing the interest rates on the loans to 6.25 percent from 4 percent, as well as reducing the maximum amount available to borrowers to $19,999 from $100,000.

As part of the program's new campaign, plans are to lower the current interest rate. Since it was created in 2007, OHA's Mālama Loan Program has given out more than $34 million in low-interest loans to an estimated 2,000 Native Hawaiian consumers. Behind the numbers are Native Hawaiian consumers like Vertido, who graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1998 and completed in one year her master's degree in nursing thanks to her loan from OHA. "Working full-time while attending college was difficult," Vertido said. "My biggest challenge eame when I entered my hnal

semester and ran out of money. I was so close to getting my master's degree. If I didn't finish in 2012, I would have missed the opportunity to complete my master's in one year and I would not be where I am now - enrolled in the UH (University of Hawai'i) Nursing Program and working at Shriners Hospital as a care coordinator for Quest patients." For more information on the Mālama Loan, visit www.oha.org/ malamaloan. ■

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> This article has been corrected. Moani Vertido's last name was misspelled in certain instances. KWO regrets the errors. ■

Over the nexti6 months, OHA will be taking steps to stoke demand for its Mālama Loans. The program has set its sights on lending $io million to Native Hawaiians who are looking for financing help to start businesses, improve their homes, consolidate debts and continue their education.

Moani Vertido qualified for a $6,300 Mālama Loan at a low 4 percent interest, whieh kept her on track to completing her master's degree in nursing in one year. OHA plans a marketing eampaign to tout the loan program and a planned decrease in the current 6.25 percent interest rate. - Photo: Paulette Hedemark