according to the federal Reserve Bank in New York, Americans had nearly one point six trillion dollars of student loan debt at the end of last year and beyond the challenge to afford post-secondary education comes the managing of the payments for that degree and finding career employment.

Questa Education Foundation has been assisting individuals in northeast Indiana to complete their degrees with less debt and that is a mission that celebrates 85 years of service in 2020 too.

And we'll find out more about Quester Education Foundation on this week's Prime Time.

Good evening Saints.

>> Thanks for joining us.

With us today are Liz Bushnell.

She is executive director of Quester Education Foundation and Mack Parker, chairman of the Olive Bee Cole Foundation and a past member of Questers Board of Directors.

And we invite you to join us with your comments or questions .

You'll see a number on the screen.

You're welcome to call it any time as the cameras widen out and we can get everybody in here and there is Liz.

>> There is Mac.

Thank you folks beon for being here.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

>> Thank you for having us.

Questa, it's a very unique name and it's also a foundation name with a very unique calling.

>> It is where do you want to start on what we can explain the name to begin with be good and that's relatively new for us.

We can start as Quester Education Foundation but it actually means one who who searches and it's about seeking education, seeking opportunity and that's how question was renamed because our purpose is to help residents in our region to access education as you mentioned to be able to graduate with minimal debt and ideally to keep those talented students after they graduate in northeast Indiana to live and work.

So we're trying to help them in that journey of searching for education and making those successful careers here in our region and the evolution of this for eighty five years, Mac, not many agencies can make that claim or have that kind of track record.

I mean this this is a historic initiative that's very community driven.

>> That's correct.

And I can remember when it started there well remember when it started but I can't remember when it was over the chamber it was called the Fort Wayne Educational Foundation at that time and it was there for a great number of years and I think in 2007 it changed the name to Quester Foundation from the Fort Wayne Educational Foundation and of course it was originally the brainchild of a person that many people in the end in the Fort Wayne area know and that was our Nelson Snyder .

Of course Snyder High School was named after him there and he was the original founder of Fort Wayne Educational Foundation that then became Questa.

There is so much pay it forward in in the history of this and we'll return to our Nelson as we go through the program.

>> What's interesting though is that you're able to use the phrase forgiveable student loan in a complete sentence that's usually something that doesn't happen very often.

>> Sounds like an oxymoron.

Give me an overview about Questa Foundation and its work in the community or and that's what makes Quester really unique is it's it's a loan program which makes education affordable for students from our region.

But it's a forgivable loan program as you mentioned.

So students who participate in the Quester Scholars program can get up to five thousand dollars a year or up to if they go to a four year program they get twenty thousand dollars total in loans and when they graduate if they live and work in Northeast Indiana for five years, then 50 percent of their loan is forgiven and it gets even better if they go to one of our partner colleges or universities.

Another twenty five percent of their loan is forgiven so students could get twenty thousand dollars qualify for that seventy five percent forgiveness and only have five thousand dollars to pay back so so tremendous opportunity for students in the region.

>> It seems like it takes care of two of the most important aspects again of branching out after high school.

Where do I go?

>> How do I cover it and then where do I take all this new fresh knowledge?

It's been minted over a four year period and do something and is saying you don't have to go far to do that.

>> You can do that literally right here in northeast Indiana's backyard.

Make me correct there.

Well, Nelson Snyder of course had a great vision there and here we're covering it down over many years now.

But Snyder High School of course was named after him.

He was the principal of Southside for thirty seven years and he started the loan program when he was at Southside and it continued on and then became eventually the Fort Wayne Educational Foundation there.

And then from then in 2007 it changed its name to Quester Foundation there.

But after Nelson was the guiding light of it for many of the early years and of course he was a very prominent educator in the Fort Wayne area and that's why they named after Nelson Snyder Snyder High School and did do I have the story right in part that some of the initial concerns were gap funds being able to fill in what say a family was not able to to to provide and that this was certainly a welcomed solution but that the problem that apparently larger in scope in fact than just closing gaps.

>> Yes, it was and Nelson Snyder had this practice as principal at Southside High School where he would meet with every student or senior year and and talk to them about what their plans were for their future and students he would recognize this pattern of students who had interest and ability to go to college but they didn't have the resources to make it possible or they couldn't make up that gap.

Maybe some money saved but not enough to be able to make college happen.

And so that's what motivated Nelson Snyder to start Questa and at the time it was South Side Loan Fund.

He started it to the principal's office and it was just a it was a solution that he came up with as a dedicated educator as I was describing thinking that these students could make it if they just had a little bit of help and so he started with his own resources, with donations from other educators, with donations from business leaders sometimes five dollars at a time to start the South Side loan fund and he ran out of the principal's office for a number of years before it actually became the Fort Wayne Educational Foundation in nineteen forty six and was incorporated as the nonprofit.

>> Well Emek this idea must have really caught fire because you need commitments to fund the fund but you need an idea to inaugurate the fund and certainly Mr. Snyder was the the lead domino if you will for something that just continued to play out.

Talk about the way the community and other foundations in Fort Wayne rallied around if you will just this idea.

>> Well, originally it was of course Fort and many of the foundations did I mean falling Foundation of course and McMellon Foundation helped much along the way and that ultimately Decco Foundation in Kendall Vale and co-founder and that I happen to be associated with was one of the backers and those four foundation.

But it really kind of boiled down to people I mean Helene Pollinger and Mr. McMellon and Chet Decco and others were really some of the forefront that helped Nelson get this started and to get to the most prominent driver for those that are seeking to go to college in this forgivable loan program.

I almost want to rewind that a little bit that you're carrying a nominal grade point.

>> You need to be sure that you're completing your classes.

>> But this seems to be an amazing wait.

Is that what you just told me I can get my loan forgiven kind of experience how and you've had a number of those kinds of experiences just even in recent years.

>> We absolutely have.

And it's it's one of those things where we're always trying to make sure that students and families in the region know about Questa and know the resource that exists.

And I hear many times people as I explain what we do and how we help students say I wish I'd known about that.

So we're always trying to make sure that the word is out that students know we're a resource for them in the community and in the difference that it can make because as you described it can be that that just extra couple of thousand dollars that make up the difference for students to be able to afford to go to college to make their education possible, to make them successful and ideally then back in our community to live and work after they graduate.

>> And this is a regional resource to right it is we serve the eleven county region of northeast Indiana.

>> So we've got students from Natalie Allen County but across the region and we've got support from across the region.

I think that's that's part of where our request to is today ties into our history is how we've had community leaders and individual donors and foundations as Mark was describing who have all invested in Quester as a resource for students in our community and its unique in the state and it's unique in the country.

>> There's no other quester anywhere out there.

I was just going to ask you it's it's kind of nice to be able to be literally outstanding in your field.

>> Absolutely.

That's interesting.

I was going to ask that question also that although there are other areas of the country have followed this at all or that they have made they may do it in a different fashion in a different way.

But here it's grown up here since what nineteen thirty seven there and I'm just wondering whether other places have picked up not that to our knowledge there's not another program that's designed just like Quester but there are certainly other great fantastic programs across other areas of the country where they're investing in students and helping students either through scholarships or through other financial aid resources.

I think what makes us so unique is that forgivable loan aspect where we're funding students but also incentivizing students to come back to the community to be part of northeast Indiana and to to build their lives here.

And so I think that's what really makes us stand out well that's the original and that's the very great part about questi is if they come back to the community and that's what's very important.

I mean many, many communities you're able to educate students but they won't go back.

And Quest of course is a very great incentive to have you come back to the community and that's very important to us.

>> You have followed economic development in our region for a good long time now and I'd love to hear your thoughts about the importance, if you will, on talent retention talent attraction we hear about all the time.

>> But how do you you know, how do you get them back?

Yeah, there well I think I think Questa is a very significant help in this.

I think it has been over the years.

I think the foundations that are able to help fund Questa and able to to see about getting kids jobs and other things are very significant help.

In other words, I think that the foundations communities has very strong in northeast Indiana.

I mean, you know, led led by falling and McMillan and other very decco and other very strong foundations I think we're very fortunate and they're able to provide a lot of scholarship money and a lot of loan money through Questa and that these then are able to attract the kids back.

And I think that's been very significant in the continued growth of Fort Wayne there.

As you may recall we had just in the newspaper about a week ago there that Fort Wayne is continuing to grow whereas many of the city's in the in the country or not.

And I think that it's organizations like Questa that are helping very significantly in that there's always an emphasis to every year from the General Assembly right on through all four corners of the state about workforce development and having the qualified applicant pool to get things done.

So much so that it seems one of the evolutionary options over the eighty five years perhaps more recently is the idea of a specialized career scholar program.

There are several of those and HWC Foundation just signed on apparently to to assist in that share with folks.

>> What we're describing here at USC just joined us and we have several employer partners in the region that help us to fund students through that Career Scholars program that you're describing and what's great about that it's it's an opportunity for our local employers to invest directly with students who are studying in the fields that they're trying to recruit candidates.

And so we Parkview Health as another great example of a long time employer who's been supportive of Quester.

They find nursing students who when they get funding through our Career Scholars program with Parkview that that loan can actually be one hundred percent forgiven if the students go on to work from Parkview.

So we've got a number of employers who have who have had created this type of program with us to be able to to help students with those financial needs help minimize or have no debt when they graduate because it can be one hundred percent forgiven and be lined up for a career opportunity with some fantastic regional employers also helping those employers then meet those workforce needs because as you described it and certainly right now talent and in labor shortages have been such a tremendous stress for for employers in the region and to have a unique opportunity like this to invest in students and develop that creative talent pipeline for your future hires is just a win all around.

>> And while we're mentioning names to Brotherhood Mutual having an internship program and visiting nurse scholars program, same idea of contributing to this to this larger cause for those who have questions and comments you have been calling and sharing your reflections you'd like us to discuss on the program and so we'll do that now if you have another question, we have the phone lines wide open but Baez wants to know is this idea forgivable loan apply only to traditional students or does it apply to returning adults perhaps too?

>> I'm so glad we got that question.

We actually support students of all ages so a lot of students are in our traditional scholars program and those are students just graduating high school or in their first year of college.

But we also have our Contemporary Scholars program which will help students that are of any age so they could be currently enrolled college students who need some financial help in order to finish or they may be adult learners who are going back to college or starting a degree program.

So Questers available to to students of any age and generally for undergraduate programs.

>> But we actually have a couple of programs to support students at graduate and professional degrees as well.

Well, Meg, I'm curious because we have Questors development over time.

We have a number of other nonprofits that have very solid histories with this community in the region.

>> I'm wondering where the connective tissue part comes in about where Questers history perhaps connects to the history of philanthropy in our in our region.

You were mentioning some of the other foundations, businesses and leaders.

>> This is a very unique space in addition to having a unique agency like Western well, I think we're fortunate in the area that we have we have some early thinkers here.

By that I would mean Harlene Bohlinger and the McMellon Foundation and Quester or Chet Decco Decco Foundation and the Foundation that I'm involved with Cole Foundation that have viewed scholarship and having students return to the area as being very, very important.

And so this is where a lot of money has been flowing over the years and it's been important I think in not only Fort Wayne but all of northeast Indiana to bring students back and it's way that we have just had a returning deal of students returning to Fort Wayne .

There were other parts of the country do not have there which has been very fortunate for us.

>> One of those students whose story we get to share with you now is Lydia Neff.

>> She shares what her experience has been like working with Quester take look my name is what Eknath and I work for a brotherhood and mutual insurance company and I am a senior operations analyst.

I actually decided to stay in northeast Indiana in large part due to Quester because they they really encourage staying in northeast Indiana.

There's a payback of the five years you have to remain here and I was able to find a job in that area as well when I first started going to college I had no idea what I wanted to go for or even if I was going to go to college I didn't want to get into a lot of debt.

I didn't not want to take out a ton of student loans and so Questa gave me the funds to actually be able to go to college.

They also helped me decide what college you go to because you got more of a percentage off based off of if you went to the part of their partnership colleges.

And so I went to Ivy Tech and then try and based off of just what Questa offered, I would have gone to college at the request and so I came in.

I want to have my job that I currently have today like it was influential during my whole career.

So I want to be where I'm at today.

Most people should check out Quester and sign and save money and live a great life and there are the numbers that help to prove the point lots of folks are following in Libya's footsteps.

>> They are we are so proud of both the graduation rate and our retention rate of of students in the region so we average over 80 percent right now we're eighty two percent of our graduates or our students graduate and complete on time and seventy three percent of Questa scholars stay and come back to northeast Indiana to live and work which is just a tremendous result and what we were talking about in 27 when the board changed the name to Quester and they they started the forgivable loan program the board didn't know if it was going to work.

>> They were we were talking about as a community how do we help bring our young people back into the to the region?

How can we retain talented graduates?

>> We need them for the community.

We need them for our workforce.

And so they developed this idea of a forgivable loan program and we're all in and we're ready to invest everything that Quester had to see if it would work and fortunately it has it's been a tremendous result and there is opportunity as well for you as a business owner or for adults as well to find a place in helping not only to further Questers work but also to celebrate Questers work.

You've got date saver here for October six.

>> What's going on?

Well we're so excited about the history of Quester and to be able to celebrate the founders, the community members, the leaders and our students and all of the success that they've achieved over the last five years.

So we're planning a celebration on October six it will be at Sweetwater Sound from three to five p.m. and we're it's a free event open to the public but it will be ticketed.

So we'll ask people to register in advance.

But we're really excited because we have a special speaker coming in.

Steve Pemberton, he's a best selling author.

He's got a fantastic story of how he he really had a tumultuous childhood.

He was in foster care and unfortunately an abusive situation and there were community people in his life that enabled him to succeed in school to be able to get to college, to be able to to succeed in life .

And his story is so similar to Questers history of how the people in our community are making that type of difference for our students.

And so we're just excited about the opportunity to celebrate and to share that history and and talk about the successes of our students.

>> We're going to put some contact information up on the screen for for you right now and we'll share this yet again before we conclude for this evening.

But if you would like to make note of Quester online or Quester in social media, all that information right there for you and October six or an eighty fifth anniversary that is quite incredible.

>> So one has to ask what are you thinking about for year 86?

>> Well, we are continuing to grow we're continuing to be able to support more students as you mentioned with the employer partnerships with the support of our foundation partners.

Individual donors help make a difference for us to support students.

So we're really have an eye on on growth.

We know that we've we've been able to help a number of students.

They've made a significant impact in the community.

We're funding over 400 students a year at this point but we continue to have more and more opportunity with more partnerships because we've we have even greater demand and so we're excited to continue that that progress of helping students and help them stay in our community to be successful .

So indeed foundational even though I am not a foundation, I can contribute to that foundational funding that our Nillson Snyder originated not so long ago.

So I can be a business I can be a person of interest and continue to pay it forward part Mack with so much of the region's history it's been about paying things forward whether it's economic development or human development.

>> Well cofounding has been very pleased to assist in funding Quester I don't know how many years we go back now but I think we've funded over 300000 to Questa grants and every one of the Quester students that we did fund graduated graduated from college and that's been very pleasing to us there.

But Questa has been a very good organization through what started of course in Fort Wayne there is the Fort Wayne Educational Foundation there but then ultimately branched out and got in 2007 you changed your name from Fort Wayne Educational Foundation to Quester Foundation and then went to all eleven Northeast counties at that point.

>> And here's another another another excuse me statistics I want to be sure to get snuck in there since 2007 about seven million dollars in forgivable loans to help a thousand students from Quester that that's an incredible achievement and obviously it is a growing number.

>> Right.

And that since 2007 over our eighty five eighty five year history we know we've helped over five thousand students with nearly twenty million dollars in funding and great graduating classes experiences even from twenty twenty lots of representation across the counties and their fields of study.

>> As we're in the final minute I'm going to give it to you as executive director for your your own personal sense of what Quester has achieved here, what that 85 year mile marker means for you.

>> I think it's a it's an honor and a credible achievement of our community when I talk to students that are in the Quester program, I tell them your community is behind you and I mean it literally because we are getting donations and support and guidance and volunteers from the community.

Every dollar that we have access to comes from our community to invest in our students and and so our students know that we're here for them.

>> And here's how you can be for them as well a contact information popping up on your TV as we speak Quester Foundation dot org and there's the phone number and we have been speaking with Quester executive director Liz Bushnell and Cole Foundation Chairman Mac Parker.

I thank you both very much for being a part of the hour.

Thank you for joining us and thank you for watching as well.

For all of us with prime time, I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care and we'll see you again soon.

Good night