Student Freedom Initiative

Student Freedom Initiative includes programming features that are open to all Claflin students, regardless of their chosen major. Program offerings include tutoring, mentoring, internships and targeted Claflin capacity building. 

The Student Freedom Agreement, as the income-contingent funding alternative is called, is currently available to students who:

• Have a valid Social Security Number (SSN)
• School-approved Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) (or acceptable state alternative)
• Enrolled full-time at a participating four-year college or university, with the final year exception if less than full-time coursework is required for degree completion.
• Rising junior or senior (by credit hours)
• Majoring in an approved science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degree-seeking program
• Meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), as defined by your institution. 

Please note that you are ineligible if you are in the United States with a non-immigrant visa.

 The program expects to grow and these parameters may change. The Student Freedom Initiative website will provide the latest details and updates.

Claflin administration has approved the following majors as those which students may select in order to be eligible for a Student Freedom Agreement:

• Computer Science
• Computer Engineering
• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics
• Biotechnology
• Biotechnology
• Applied Math (Clemson-Only Eligible while Enrolled at Claflin during Junior Year)*
• Mathematics
• Mathematics (Applied Mathematics Track)
• Chemistry

Eligible students can apply for a Student Freedom Agreement to currently receive up to $40,000 total, with a funding cap of $20,000 per academic year. The Student Freedom Agreement is an income-contingent private educational loan currently approved for Juniors and Seniors (by credit) for the above-mentioned majors. 

The terms of the Student Freedom Agreement are fundamental to the nonprofit status and student-centric mission of the program. Student Freedom Initiative income-contingent private educational loan, the Student Freedom Agreement, begins with equity and protection. Claflin University does not endorse Student Freedom Initiative’s Income Contingent Alternative to Parent Plus and other private education loans product. Claflin University is not affiliated with Student Freedom Initiative.

At a high level, these terms include a pledge by Student Freedom Initiative:

• To embody our commitment to equity and community, all participating students at every institution will be offered the same terms;
• To provide participants with payment plans aligned with their income; and
• To shield participants from excessive fees and penalties

Following his now famous liberation gift to the Morehouse College Class of 2019, Robert F. Smith gathered with the presidents of nine HBCUs, including Dr. Warmack, to form a team to develop the ideas that coalesced to become Student Freedom Initiative. Together they found a solution scaled to serve an entire generation of students at MSIs and HBCUs across the country. Mr. Smith challenged the group to find a way to create a lasting program based on a ‘Pay It Forward’ paradigm by which current participants provide the funding for future students. Any profits would go back into education instead of allowing investors to profit from those least able to afford it. Finally, he charged the team to go beyond the financial aspects and include student support services and assistance for modernizing MSI/HBCU infrastructure to reach across the aisle from academia to the workplace. 

Smith, the founding director and President of Fund II Foundation, personally provided $50 million to Student Freedom Initiative to match a $50 million grant from the Fund II Foundation to launch the program.