2017 was strong year for myFootpath and our family of brands for student recruitment. On the corporate side, we successfully completed a capital raise, and we made several key hires to the team. Both will help us continue to deliver tremendous value to our college and university clients!

Under our Operation Graduate brand, we successfully delivered 243 new students to one of our partners in 2017. Under the Operation Graduate model, each student has a Graduation Specialist, a person that serves as a central point of contact for the student to help with course scheduling, financial aid forms, and other administrative paperwork. The Graduation Specialist stays with each student from the first call all the way through to graduation. In addition to the student growth we saw in 2017, and because of our team of Graduation Specialists, we were able to retain these students at significantly higher rates. For us, this retention rate is a particular point of pride, and evidence that our model works. It sure was nice to get those results back!

I thought I’d share one of my favorite quotes from one of our students about his Graduation Specialist, “She can be stern but I know it’s because she really cares. I want to thank her for all she does and [let her] know that she… has made a difference in many people’s lives. She is the greatest!”

Based on our success with our Graduation Specialists, we were inspired to launch a new brand and offer to the higher education market called Operation ReEngage. This new program will help college and university partners re-enroll stop-outs – to improve retention, graduation, and net revenue. Operation ReEngage will be offered alongside Operation Graduate, as both serve different needs.

If you are unfamiliar with the retention and stop-out problem that faces higher education, here are a few statistics. Over 31 million Americans (or 20-25% of the workforce) have started college but not completed. Stop-outs are 71 percent more likely to be unemployed, and 400% more likely to be in default. Stop-outs earn 32% less than college graduates.

When you look deeper at stop-outs, there are a number of different surveys that point to why students stop attending a college. Most reasons are what we would call “customer service issues”. One recent study indicated 84% of students left because of customer service issues, made up these components – (i) the college doesn’t care, (ii) poor service, (iii) scheduling issues, and (iv) the feeling that college wasn’t worth the hassle.

When we read this study, our team said, huh? How could this be? These are the kinds of things that our Graduation Specialists handle – very, very well. We can help. We can re-engage these students, solve the customer service issues, and help them graduate. And, thus, Operation ReEngage was born.

Operation ReEngage combines our team’s deep expertise in data analysis to target eligible students to re-enroll, process adjustments proven to keep students enrolled, and the Graduation Specialists relentless follow-up and service to students.

We invite you to learn more about the powerful impact Operation Graduate and/or Operation ReEngage can have on your college or university in 2018. Get started today, by contacting J.T. Allen, at 312.327.7131 or jtallen@myfootpath.com.

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