Business strives to help students finance education

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• Historic Fort York David Spittal courtesy murmur.com
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With the cost of tuition, books, and living expenses rising each year, it is becoming increasingly important for students to find new ways to finance their post-secondary education.

A recent survey found that 73 per cent of students are going to have to borrow money to pay for school.

While the majority of students say the money will have to come from parents and relatives or from government loans, only one per cent expect any money to come from scholarships and bursaries.

Enter studentawards.com, an online site dedicated to changing that reality.

"There's money out there for students to tap into, but information is hard to find and it requires a lot of work to track it down," said Suzanne Tyson, president of Student Awards Inc., the Toronto-based company behind the website.

Studentawards.com takes the hard work out of it by offering a free service to students that matches them with scholarships, bursaries, grants and other forms of financial assistance specific to their needs and attributes.

"Many corporations offer scholarships that are never awarded because suitable students are not found," Tyson said. "That's a shame."

Lesley Gouldie, the company's CEO, said the matching service benefits both students and corporations.

"A lot of companies want to speak to students, to give something back," Gouldie said.

With its large database of high school, university and college students, companies are able to reach their target audience easily through banner ads on the website, as well as through goodwill advertising that comes with offering scholarships.

With the need for employees outweighing the relatively small pool of talented youth graduating from schools in Canada, Gouldie said corporations are also using grants to lure recruits and inspire company loyalty.

Companies can contact studentawards.com and ask it to either advertise an existing scholarship or create and administer a new one.

"There are huge benefits," Tyson said.

"It's an easy opportunity to make a connection with youth," Gouldie added.

The duo took over Student Awards Inc. in the summer and they have dreams of expanding the business to include not just those students starting their post-secondary education, but upper-year students and graduates entering the workforce.

They are planning an initiative in November that will allow new companies to try out the services offered by Student Awards without the long-term commitment. It will be a coalition initiative that will be presented as an online game to students. Businesses interested in participating can contact the pair to find out more information.

Tyson said she's been surprised to find how much willingness there is on the part of corporations to help youth succeed.

"It's a very rewarding job," she says. "Its wonderful to be part of this."