On March 4th, Aaron Calafato will perform his one-man play, “For Profit” at theCollege of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio. The performance will be immediately followed by a panel discussion. This event is sponsored by the Wooster Libertarians and supported by the Wooster Socialists and is FREE for all to attend. For those unable to attend in-person, the event will be live-streamed at StudentDebtCrisis.org/ForProfit.

For the last year, Aaron Calafato has been performing his solo play, “For Profit” at colleges across the country. His play chronicles his experiences from when he worked as an admissions counselor at a for-profit college and details the predatory nature of this industry. Calafato originally took the position because he viewed it as a means to pay off his own student debt, while simultaneously helping others achieve their dream of attending college. However, It didn’t take long for him to realize that the school valued profit over the well-being of the students and he was expected to do whatever it took to enroll students. According to Calafato, “We were  pushed to treat people like numbers, if you didn’t, your job was in jeopardy. I noticed when I started performing my job duties ethically, my enrollment numbers went down.”

The for-profit college industry has experienced increased scrutiny for valuing profits over the wellbeing of students. According to Calafato, at for-profit colleges, intense pressure is placed on admissions counselors to do just about whatever it takes to get students to enroll and apply for student loans. The more students that enroll, the more taxpayer money in the form of student aid is allocated to the school. Currently, only 10% of U.S. students attend for-profit colleges, yet these schools receive nearly 25% of all student aid and are responsible for nearly half of all student loan defaults.

This creative form of expression serves as an important creative tool in educating, informing, and creating social dialogue about the growing for-profit college industry and the student debt crisis. In addition to his work as an actor, Aaron is also a co-founder of the nonprofit, StudentDebtCrisis.org, which advocates on behalf of student borrowers. For more information on this issue and to bring the play, For Profit to your college or university, please visitStudentDebtCrisis.org orwww.aaroncalafato.com.