CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–September 17, 2014. Sean Anderson, a 22-year-old business management major at Roosevelt University, has been appointed as a student board member on the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE).
After his first board meeting last month, Anderson, a native of Naperville, Ill., said his aim as a board member is to work with IBHE and Illinois lawmakers in finding remedies for the growing student-loan debt crisis.
“I’m here to collaborate with our higher education leaders in taking a hard look at what can be done to keep college students from serious debt,” said Anderson.
Anderson is a 2010 graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora where he was active in student government. His mother, Ranada Anderson, also of Naperville, died unexpectedly of pituitary cancer shortly before her son graduated from Waubonsie.
A single mother and 20-year higher education executive who worked in enrollment, recruitment and admissions for many Chicago-area universities, Anderson always stressed the importance of her son going to college. Sean Anderson followed that advice, enrolling first at Loyola University where he paid his own way by working as associate director of new business ventures for Loyola’s Loyola Limited project and by taking private bank loans.
After attending Loyola for two years, he transferred to Roosevelt where he is taking nine hours a semester, paying for classes with job earnings and has no private loans. “It has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life,” he said.
Active with Roosevelt’s Student Government Association and attuned to the University’s mission of social justice, Anderson has found mentors at Roosevelt, including professor Joanne Howard, who also lost her mother before starting college. “I kept on telling him, “Don’t lead with your grief. You have to deal with it yourself in your own way and time,” said Howard.
As one of only two college students on the IBHE board, Anderson today is one of Roosevelt’s most prominent student leaders. “He’s got great analytic skills. He knows how to get at the nugget of a situation and present very effectively,” said Howard, who taught Anderson in a public administration class.
Anderson is politically active and also has a job as marketing associate with the Vander Weele Group, an investigative consulting agency in Chicago that combats fraud, waste and mismanagement. As an IBHE student board member, Anderson also has been working with Illinois State Senator Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign) on the “Pay it Forward” concept that will explore ways for making college more affordable in Illinois and curb student-loan debt for future generations.
Anderson, whose term with IBHE runs through June 30, 2015, wants to have a discussion in Illinois about “Pay it Forward” pilot programs, such as one being tried in the state of Michigan in which students receive tuition-free education, paying back based on income earned after graduation. “Since I’ve been at Roosevelt, I’ve come to the realization that I want to continue my mother’s work – and that is to help put all students who want to go to college in the position where they can pursue an education, regardless of any lack of resources,” Anderson said.
Source: roosevelt.edu
