Troy University introduces new scholarship portal AwardSpring

Big changes happened to Troy’s scholarship portal over the summer, aiming to give students an easier and faster application experience.

The changes were spearheaded by Director of Scholarships Kerrie Hill.

The scholarship portal, previously made possible through a software called Blackbaud, is now AwardSpring.

“[The university] has been looking around for a new platform for over a year now,” Hill said.

After meeting with several different companies, AwardSpring is what they decided on because it was deemed the most student friendly portal. The program makes the scholarship application process easy by automatically matching students with scholarship opportunities based on eligibility criteria.

“AwardSpring matches students based on specific academic criteria to scholarships they may be eligible for,” Hill said. “There will be follow up questions the students will have to complete to submit the application, but this takes out the extensive search amongst the hundreds of scholarships we offer.

“If students are not eligible for the scholarship, they will not be able to apply for it, which will cut down on situations where students waste time on scholarships they don’t meet all the criteria for.

"We wanted to find a platform to enhance the student experience, and this is the one that best fit our needs.”

After a student is matched with an award, they do not have to log back in to accept the award as they did with the previous system.

“Once students are awarded, there will not be anything else students need to do to receive scholarships,” Hill said. “[With the old system,] some students would miss out on scholarships because they did not accept them in a timely manner.

“Most scholarships will still require students to complete a thank you note to the donors, but the requirement to accept the scholarship is no longer required.”

Hill believes this update was much needed.

“We need to give the students something that makes searching for scholarships easier, and AwardSpring does just that,” Hill said. “This is brand new for all of us, so we are still working out the kinks to ensure it works the way it should. But I couldn’t be happier with the system so far.

“I know the students will love it too.”

All scholarship information has been updated on the Troy University website as well as in Self-Service. Any time a student searches scholarships for Troy, they will be directed to AwardSpring.

Hill urges any students experiencing issues with the new system to reach out by emailing scholarships@troy.edu.

“This is a very big change for all of us, and the best way for us to make AwardSpring what it should be is through the help of students,” Hill said. “If you are having issues with anything related to the application process, please let us know so we can address it quickly.”