Great Lakes Sparking Change in Scholarship Delivery

ScholarshipMovement.org and ScholarNet for Scholarships are Latest Tools in Streamlining Financial Aid

Madison, Wis. June 12, 2017—Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., a leading higher education solutions provider, has taken the initial steps to unite scholarship providers and schools in an effort to streamline scholarship delivery and ultimately better serve students.

Campaign highlights include the launch of ScholarshipMovement.org, a new website powered by Great Lakes, and the debut of ScholarNet® for Scholarships, a new tool that will connect scholarship providers and schools to create a smooth, consistent scholarship disbursement experience and ensure students receive their funds more quickly, safely, and efficiently.

As the provider of ScholarNet, an existing solution that has successfully automated and streamlined the data exchange and funding of private student loans, Great Lakes identified an opportunity to spark similar innovation in the scholarship arena. Scholarship funds are critically important to today’s students, but the process of getting outside scholarship funds from providers to campus is anything but modern. Scholarship funds can be delivered in a variety of ways—sent to students or directly to campus, by master check or by individual. Weeks after disbursement, awards are often still making their way between people and departments.

Great Lakes invites scholarship providers interested in streamlining and simplifying the delivery of funds to visit ScholarshipMovement.org to learn more about us and our solution. We likewise encourage schools interested in eliminating the burden of paper checks and manual processing to visit the site or reach out to their Great Lakes representative. Together, by joining the scholarship movement and creating a robust network of providers and schools, we can spark change for the benefit of the many students who rely on scholarship funds to be there when needed.

Beyond taking our word for it, financial aid professionals involved in a recent pilot program related their positive experiences with the tool:

“I like all of the information it gives you on the actual disbursement, it is everything we need to post awards.” − Susan Hartnagel (University of Missouri - Columbia)

“I don’t have to worry about missing checks or [funds] being sent to an incorrect address.” − May Thin (Stanford University)

“This makes my job easier.” − Whitley Gray (University of Louisville).

The ScholarNet for Scholarships pilot included 20 schools, with nearly $3 million in disbursements processed.