By: Megan Williams

STAUNTON — When Tralen Neal was a freshman and then a sophomore at Mary Baldwin College a few years ago, the senior wasn't sure she was going to matriculate.

The weight of the student loan debt she was accruing — and the private loan her mother took out as well — seemed to be too much. Neal wondered, "Is it worth it?"

According to the Institute for College Access and Success, 60 percent of people who graduated from college in Virginia in 2014 had some debt, the average being $26,432. For Mary Baldwin, the average debt of 2014 graduates was $32,217, and 83 percent of students graduated with debt.

Neal is no exception, and she, along with 19 other student leaders from colleges and universities around the state, traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to talk with Sen. Tim Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner (both D-Va.) to talk about higher education and concerns about higher loan debt. The U.S. Senate is working on a higher education act and Kaine and Warner wanted student input, Neal said.

Neal said she talked about her own experience with debt and gave advice on grants and how to make them more efficient without increasing interest. Neal is majoring in biology and wants to go to medical school to become a trauma surgeon. However, she's worried that the burden of student debt is keeping college graduates from pursuing graduate school because they worry about needing to make money to pay off student loans.

"A bachelor's degree just isn't as competitive anymore," Neal said. "But they feel like they need to take a break and reduce their debt."

And that doesn't take into account the students who are too discouraged by the burden of debt to even finish their undergraduate degree.

"It puts a stress on your health and it's hard to focus on your academics," Neal said.

Being able to share her concerns with Kaine and Warner was a "wonderful" experience. Neal said the senators were interested in what the students had to say and made them feel comfortable while sharing their experiences and concerns.

“These campus leaders offered compelling personal stories to illustrate the crippling impact of student loan debt on a generation of young Virginians, limiting their options and opportunities as they graduate and join the workforce and plan their futures,” Warner said in a statement. “As the first person in my family to complete college, I know that if I had graduated with today’s levels of student debt, I would not have had opportunities to try — and to fail — with several of my early business ventures.”

The roundtable included student representatives from Christopher Newport University, the College of William and Mary, Ferrum College, George Mason University, Hampton University, James Madison University, Longwood University, Mary Baldwin College, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, Randolph-Macon College, Richard Bland College, Thomas Nelson Community College, Tidewater Community College, University of Mary Washington, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University.