By Amy Potthast.

Take it from us, kid: it's never too early to start thinking about financing your education. (Philippe Put, Flickr/Creative Commons)

Do you have student loans? Are you thinking about borrowing money for grad school?

The latest episode of the Idealist Grad Schools Podcast takes a closer look at two student debt relief programs established by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The program requirements can be confusing, so I chatted with Heather Jarvis about a step-by-step approach to understanding both programs.

• Part One of the podcast focuses on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, in which many nonprofit and government workers stand to gain tens of thousands of dollars of student debt relief – after meeting several program requirements. Download now or scroll down to the media player.
• Part Two focuses on Income-Based Repayment, a crucial component of PSLF that is available now and that allows you to make even $0 payments to your loans, if that’s all you can afford. Download now or scroll down to the media player.
• You can read the transcripts of both shows here.

Why Heather? A former capital defense attorney saddled with $125,000 in law school debt, Heather Jarvis now dedicates her expertise to helping student loan borrowers make better decisions so that higher education can be a reality for all – not just those who can afford it.

Learn more. Just as we were editing this show, President Obama announced changes to the way current and future students can repay student loans. Get the details on Heather’s site. And for all of the links mentioned in these episodes, visit idealist.libsyn.com.

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Amy Potthast served as Idealist’s Director of Service and Graduate Education Programs until 2011. Read more of her work at amypotthast.com.

By Amy Potthast.

Right this minute, our Idealist Grad Fair season is kicking off in New York City. To celebrate, we’ve got a fresh podcast for you: a look at nonprofit management programs through the eyes of three friendly admissions counselors. The podcast comes in three bite-sized installments. Click here to learn more and listen.

With a plethora of graduate disciplines available to you—MBA, MPA, Social Work—you may be wondering, why might I go for a specialized degree in nonprofit management?

We hope this show might help answer this question. Topics include:

• Part 1: What makes a degree in nonprofit management. Amy learns that it’s a very narrowly focused degree, mostly geared towards professionals already in the sector or career changers, and it prepares students for senior leadership positions in the sector.
• Part 2: The typical coursework students will encounter, plus the option of a certificate program.
• Part 3: Admissions and financial aid. What makes the ideal applicant, and how do students pay for their degrees?

Special thanks to our panelists:

Edward Grice is the Associate Dean of the MBA program in nonprofit management at the American Jewish University. Chris Nicholson is the Director of Graduate Admissions at North Park University in Chicago, home of the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management. And Rebecca Zirm is the Director of Recruitment at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organization and Case Western Reserve University.

Links to learn more:

• Idealist Grad Fairs feature nonprofit management, public affairs, social work and other public service degrees — and they’re touring the country all fall.
• Idealist Grad School Resource Center features an overview of the nonprofit management degree, among others.
  The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council is the accrediting body for nonprofit management degree programs across the country and a resource for people seeking the degree.
• Seton Hall’s Nonprofit Management resources include a great overview of nonprofit education  and a listing of grad programs.

If you listen to the podcast, I’d love to hear what you think!

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Amy Potthast served as Idealist’s Director of Service and Graduate Education Programs until 2011. Read more of her work at amypotthast.com.

By Amy Potthast.

Can you make the world more sustainable by working for a corporation?

According to Net Impact and its free, downloadable career guide Corporate Careers that Make a Difference, you can.

Everyday, business leaders make a positive environmental and social impact in their companies – both in dedicated green jobs, as well as in more conventional job functions.

On this episode of the Idealist Careers Podcast, Idealist’s Amy Potthast chats with Abby Davisson from Net Impact, a national nonprofit dedicated to engaging business in making the world sustainable, and Yonnie Leung, Principal of Environmental Sustainability for Shared Services at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California and one of the professionals profiled in the Net Impact career guide.

During the conversation, they also briefly mention Net Impact’s Business as UNusual Guide to MBA programs that have a focus on corporate citizenship. The 2011 Guide launches this week; if you’re in the market for MBA programs, you can download it free from Net Impact. You can meet many of the schools mentioned in Business as UNusual this fall at the Idealist Grad Fairs taking place across the country.

Ready to listen? Download the show or subscribe in iTunes.

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Amy Potthast served as Idealist’s Director of Service and Graduate Education Programs until 2011. Read more of her work at amypotthast.com.

Will you be on a plane, train, or automobile this holiday weekend? We have a treat for you: a new Idealist Podcast! Let us know what you think, and browse our archives for more.

One of Teatro Ciego’s main goals is to not only provide employment for the visually impaired, but to strengthen their artistic skills for the job market.

I hold onto my friend Ceci’s shoulders as we walk into the pitch black theatre single file. I can’t see a thing – not even my hands. I start to panic. But someone gently guides me to my seat, and I know I’m okay. The sound of typewriters soon fills the room.

I’m at Teatro Ciego, or Blind Theatre, waiting anxiously for the play La Isla Desierta to begin. This theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina is the only one in the world to host performances in the dark. I don’t know what to expect.

I’m here because I’m curious to see how the cast made up of both blind and seeing actors can pull this off, and because I want to get out of my comfort zone. And I do. For the next two hours, my imagination runs wild as sounds and smells from the jungle to the sea envelop me.

Ceci and I leave the theatre in awe, convinced Teatro Ciego is an idea worth spreading. Find out why in our podcast here:

Idealist Podcast: Teatro Ciego (English)

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Co-producer Ceci Gil Mariño and I would especially like to thank Martín Celis, Terry Dennis, Craig Dennis and Jason Kirtland for lending us their voices; Janet Bollero, Rachel McRoberts, Deborah Brody, Emily Burnett, and Lindsay Rihala for their invaluable translation assistance; Pía Sicardi for her original music; Julia Smith and Hannah Kane for their editing prowess; Douglas Coulter for his mad production skills; and most importantly, the cast of Teatro Ciego for letting us shine a light on their world.

By Amy Potthast.

This week, Lara Galinsky, Senior Vice President of Echoing Green, is launching an inspiring career guide for social impact work called Work on Purpose.

We interviewed Lara about her new book. Click here to listen now!

Each chapter of Work on Purpose asks key questions for career seekers; illustrates the impact of these questions in the lives of Echoing Green community members; and offers a place for notes at the end for you to jot reflections from your own life.

In this episode of the Idealist Careers Podcast, Idealist’s Amy Potthast chats with Lara Galinsky about the central message of Work on Purpose: finding work that uses your “Heart + Head = Hustle.”

Click here to listen:

p.s. In the podcast, Lara shares the stories of the five people who illustrate this message:

• Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, who graduated from medical school and Kennedy School of Government, and chose social-justice over medicine.
• Mark Hannis, founder of the Genocide Intervention Network and the child of Holocaust survivors, who discovered as a college student that genocide still occurs, and that he could mobilize action to end it.
• Mardie Oakes, founder of Hallmark Community Solutions, combined her background in architecture, community housing, and finance to develop housing for people with special needs.
• Socheata Poeuv, creator of the film project Khmer Legacies, which documents interviews between Khmer Rouge survivors and their adult children.
• Andrew Youn, Founder of the One Acre Fund, who started out in a corporate consulting job but later used his business skills to develop a market system for farmers in a region of Kenya to prevent annual famines.

Click here to learn more about Work on Purpose.

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Amy Potthast served as Idealist’s Director of Service and Graduate Education Programs until 2011. Read more of her work at amypotthast.com.