Beware of non-accredited schools and courses!

Case history with a twist:

Kimani is a 23-years old, bright young man who wants a college degree. He was recruited into an Equal Education Opportunity program at Kean University in NJ, after high school graduation. His father encouraged him to sign the papers. Neither understood the consequences. Kimani was 17 at the time.

Essentially, this EEO program meant Kimani signed for a low interest loan of $8000+ and was put into non-credit college courses. Apparently under this program all kids have to take these remedial classes whether they need them or not, and end up with big loans to pay back and no college credit to show for their efforts. In addition to the loan, Kimani had $2700+ he had to pay directly to the college. His father had agreed to pay it, but failed to do so.

Kimani has been working jobs on and off to pay down the debt to Kean while trying to take classes at Mercer County Community College. His debt to Kean is now $1800. And here's the kicker: Until this $1800 gets paid to Kean, Kimani can not apply for any type of aid for school.
Kimani went to see a financial advisor who does nothing but help families figure out their options to pay for college. He has agreed to help Kimani free of charge. And, because Kimani will be 24 in November, this financial advisor thinks he can help Kimani tap into opportunities to attend college for little or no cost.

Now, our blogger's collective wisdom and contacts are invited to help try and figure out how to help Kimani get this $1800 bill paid off. So far, $500 has been put towards the bill. What else is needed is ideas about grants, awards, whatever from businesses, organizations, fraternities, churches, whatever. If there are organizations that anyone is affiliated with that make these kinds of awards, would you please forward them on to here within this blog site?

Kimani's predicament needs to be brought to light so others can be better informed of their decisions. Otherwise, this is akin to the mortgage companies selling loans to people who will never be able to handle the financial burden. Why saddle young people with massive debt while not delivering any kind of college credit?

Thanks for your collective wisdom and help as we try to assist Kimani.

Susan E. Ferrara, Ph.D.