When eLab alumnus, Marla Beyer, MBA ‘20, MHA ’20, was contemplating her next move after graduation, she saw two options. She could immediately launch the pediatric telehealth startup, Hopscotch, that she had been developing in grad school, or she could go back to working at a health insurance company to first make a dent in her student loans.
Receiving the Jonas Weil Entrepreneurship Fellowship made her decision much easier. Since 1997, the fellowship has provided funds to help 70 entrepreneurial alumni of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management repay their student loans. The idea is to make loan debt less of an obstacle for alumni trying to start a business. “It was a huge weight off my shoulders,” said Beyer.