Nina Pomponio is one of the first few people to qualify for loan forgiveness.

Nina Pomponio is one of the first people to have her student debt canceled thanks to the public service loan forgiveness program — and she has advice for other borrowers.

Recent Education Department data showed that less than 1 percent of people who applied to have their student debt canceled under the program, which allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans erased after 10 years of on-time payments, were approved.

One of those lucky people is Pomponio, a lawyer at the Massachusetts Probation Service. In June of this year, she received the notice from FedLoan, the servicer for public service loan forgiveness, that her remaining debt of around $50,000 would be scrubbed and that her new balance was $0.

These are the public service loan forgiveness requirements. Often, if you don't meet one of them, you can make changes so that you do. Your loans must be federal direct loans.

Your employer must be a government organization at any level, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization or some other type of not-for-profit organization that provides public service.

By the end, you need to have made 120 qualifying, on-time payments in an income-driven repayment plan or the standard repayment plan.

Pomponio realized just how few people had also crossed the finish line during a recent phone conversation with a representative at FedLoan.

"The guy was so excited," she said. "He was like, 'Oh, my god. You're the first one we've seen.' I was like, 'Just me?'"