Interview Plan

An in-depth interview will fill a large gap in the research I have found so far: it can tell me how the facts, policies, studies, and numbers surrounding student debt actually relate to people’s lives and affect their emotions, goals, and livelihood. Where policies and studies can show how student loans affect society as a whole, an interview will give a very individual, personalized, relatable, and personable view into the effects that student debt is having on young adults today. The purposes of my in-depth interview are to learn of others experiences and perhaps gain a perspective that I do not have. The interview can also provide with an actual story, with elements and perspectives that I cannot gain from anywhere else. The interview may also elicit an emotional reaction that I will not find in archival or public policy research; it can show the emotional impact that my topic may bring. 

My interviewee is my fellow student, Molly Powers. She is able to fulfill these purposes because she and her family have experience with student loans, and she is navigating student loans as a senior who is about to graduate. Further, as I am a student with a twin brother where our family has to deal with many loans at once, Molly is a triplet who is dealing with the issue on an increased scale. I think she can offer great insight not only as a student, but as someone who is starting to plan for life beyond college, and learning to live with student debt as an adult. I will conduct my interview in person, one day next week when we both get out of class. I will conduct the interview in one of the study rooms in the library. These decisions do not greatly affect the interview, as it is a discussion that could generally happen at any location, or easily enough over the phone; still, being in-person allows for a greater and easier level of communication.

 I think my role in the process is to inform my interviewee of what I have discovered in my research, and see how this new information may change or impact their views of their own student loans and life moving forward. The role of my interviewee, I would hope, is to be reciprocal of questions, and to be honest and forthcoming with questions. One of the unexpected events that may prevent my interview could be the fact that financial and student loans may be a very private subject for some people, and certain numbers or topics may be uncomfortable for the interviewee to disclose.