It is
An awareness project about student retention, navigation, consumer debt, and practical handoffs between systems that already exist.
About this project
I kept trying to resolve it. That is part of the point.
I was not a twenty-two-year-old seeing a summons or garnishment notice for the first time. I was older, had run businesses, dealt with contracts and institutions, kept records, answered the lawsuit, asked questions, filed exemption claims, and kept trying to understand what was happening. I still found the process difficult to navigate. This project asks what the same system looks like to a student with less experience, less time, and nobody to call.
Context, not a sympathy story
Debt did not begin as a legal theory.
My house burned down. Later, my video business failed across two economic downturns. That is the short version of how financial pressure entered my life.
I am not asking this project to relitigate those years or turn them into a story about whether my debt should have existed. The judgment is real, and the court record is public. What interests me is what happened after the problem became a legal process: how long it lasted, how many systems it crossed, and how much knowledge it took to understand what to do next.
That is why I think my own experience is useful as an edge case. I had more life and work experience than the younger students this project is about. I was persistent. I kept trying to resolve the problem at nearly every turn. If the pathway was still hard for me to follow, it is worth asking how usable that pathway is for a student encountering it for the first time.
The core question
What does this look like at twenty-two?
I made it through school. My concern is the student who does not.
A younger student may be balancing classes, work, rent, food, financial aid, and family instability. They may have never hired a lawyer, read a court rule, filed an exemption, or known the difference between a collection notice and a summons.
This project is not an argument that those students should be exempt from valid debts. It asks whether Washington has made the handoff to existing help understandable enough for them to use it.
School, service and the court record
What was happening at the same time
My education was not one continuous stretch. I was at Shoreline, stepped away during COVID, served through AmeriCorps, and then returned to school through WGU Washington. The debt and court process continued across those periods.
2018
Debt / court
BECU filed suit. I filed a response rather than defaulting.
BECU filed suit. I filed a response rather than defaulting.
School / service
I was enrolled at Shoreline Community College in the Honors program.
I was enrolled at Shoreline Community College in the Honors program.
2019
Debt / court
A judgment was entered for $8,195.22, with 12% post-judgment interest.
A judgment was entered for $8,195.22, with 12% post-judgment interest.
School / service
I continued at Shoreline and later completed my Associate in Arts, graduating from the Honors program with Honors with Distinction.
I continued at Shoreline and later completed my Associate in Arts, graduating from the Honors program with Honors with Distinction.
COVID period
Debt / court
The judgment remained active in the background.
The judgment remained active in the background.
School / service
I stepped away from school during the pandemic rather than moving directly into the next degree.
I stepped away from school during the pandemic rather than moving directly into the next degree.
2022–23
Debt / court
A garnishment writ was issued in late 2022 and released in early 2023.
A garnishment writ was issued in late 2022 and released in early 2023.
School / service
I served through AmeriCorps as a Benefits Hub Coach at UW Bothell and Cascadia College, helping students navigate financial and basic-needs problems that could interrupt their education.
I served through AmeriCorps as a Benefits Hub Coach at UW Bothell and Cascadia College, helping students navigate financial and basic-needs problems that could interrupt their education.
2024
Debt / court
BECU attempted another garnishment through AmeriCorps. That garnishment was later released.
BECU attempted another garnishment through AmeriCorps. That garnishment was later released.
School / service
After AmeriCorps, I returned to college through WGU Washington and continued toward a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity.
After AmeriCorps, I returned to college through WGU Washington and continued toward a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity.
2026
Debt / court
A third garnishment filing stated $13,392.91 due. I filed exemption claims and later challenged the accounting. The court denied that challenge and found that I had not established an accounting error.
A third garnishment filing stated $13,392.91 due. I filed exemption claims and later challenged the accounting. The court denied that challenge and found that I had not established an accounting error.
School / service
I was still enrolled at WGU and approaching completion of my B.S. in cybersecurity.
I was still enrolled at WGU and approaching completion of my B.S. in cybersecurity.
2026
Debt / court
I ultimately decided to file bankruptcy, an outcome I would rather have avoided.
I ultimately decided to file bankruptcy, an outcome I would rather have avoided.
School / service
At the same time, I was finishing and graduating from WGU.
At the same time, I was finishing and graduating from WGU.
During parts of this period, my living and school expenses were covered through a mix of student loans and grants. I recall explaining that to BECU during collection discussions, although I do not have written documentation of those conversations.
Education and service details are Jesse Zesbaugh’s account. Court dates and amounts are drawn from King County Superior Court case 18-2-16686-1 SEA. This project does not dispute the court’s accounting finding.
What coaching taught me
Not every student has a parent to call.
Some of the hardest work I did as a Benefits Hub Coach involved students who did not have a usable relationship with their parents. Sometimes there had been abandonment or estrangement. Sometimes contact with family was unsafe. Sometimes the student was simply navigating adulthood without the family infrastructure many people assume an eighteen- or twenty-year-old has.
At the time I served in 2022–23, getting a student recognized as independent for federal financial-aid purposes could require a case-by-case dependency override supported by documentation, and the determination generally had to be revisited each year. Part of my role was helping students understand that a pathway existed and helping them reach the people who could make the determination. Source S23
I did not make those decisions. I helped students navigate toward them.
Why that matters here
A right on paper is not the same as a usable path.
Federal rules have since improved this process. Students with unusual circumstances can now indicate that on the FAFSA, receive provisional independent status while a school reviews the situation, and—once approved at the same institution—generally do not have to re-prove the same circumstances every year unless something changes or conflicting information appears. Source S24
That evolution is relevant here. Policymakers recognized that young adults sometimes need a clearer route to turn an existing right into something they can actually use.
If we already recognize that a student may not have a parent beside them while navigating FAFSA, it is worth asking why we assume one will be there when a summons or garnishment notice arrives.
Why use my own story?
Because the students I coached trusted me with theirs.
The students I worked with as a Benefits Hub Coach met with me in confidence. Their stories are not mine to publish. Sam, Maya, and Priya are hypothetical, not composites of any one student.
My own court record gives me something different: a documented example I can discuss openly without exposing someone who came to a campus support program for help.
The edge case
I had experience they might not.
I was older, had business experience, kept records, answered the lawsuit, used the exemption process, and kept trying to resolve what I could. That is why my experience made me think about students with less experience navigating systems, not more.
What this project is—and isn’t
It is not
A campaign for debt forgiveness, an argument that valid judgments should be unenforceable, a claim that every indebted student will drop out, or an instruction for campus staff to practice law.
The question that stayed with me
What were the students I was serving doing when these calls came?
During my AmeriCorps year, I started looking at my own experience differently. I was helping students who were already trying to make rent, buy food, stay enrolled, and navigate financial aid. At the same time, I knew what it was like to get collection calls and try to work out what options actually existed.
What happened when a twenty- or twenty-two-year-old student got one of those calls? Did they know what protections applied? Were some using grant or loan money they needed for school and living expenses to pay creditors simply because they did not know what else to do?
I do not know. That question is why I built this project.