[Alaberti]

Here's an alt car: 2019 Veloster Turbo R-Spec. It's a tiny bit out of your budget, but you can find them for $16-17K all day long with low miles on 'em. Most seem to move up to the turbo ultimate or Veloster N by my understanding, both cars I've owned and they are seriously fun to drive cars, much better than the generation that came before.

Lukewarm FWD hatch with more trunk space than a Jeep Renegade making it great for college life, backseats are better than 2+2 but will probably keep friends from overstaying their welcome, manual-only, newish and still under warranty, 201hp/193 ft-lbs torque is fast but not fast-fast so they can learn to appreciate speed without being in any real danger, and best of all it was engineered by former M division manager Albert Biermann so it does have chops. This generation of Veloster is leagues better than the 1st gen in all categories. I used to foster kids and the 3 door thing is super easy to live with and as much as people say "triggers by OCD" you never see both doors at the same time. It's trickier with car seats, but that doesn't sound like it's a problem for a new driver.

Definitely encourage you give it a test drive at the least, you can feel a little M heritage in it, much more in the Veloster N but it's about $26K used and uh probably not the one you give to your kid as a first car. That's a proper hot hatch.

Edit: If you live somewhere that doesn't have 'em, I think the i30 is the international version, but I have no idea what used prices are. Either way, this platform is extremely inexpensive to maintain, it is an economy car at heart.