How a two-person team at Bow Valley College runs three award competitions a year

A two-person awards team inside a team of ten

Bow Valley College is a community college in Calgary, Alberta, serving over 10,000 students a year. Its programs run from short career certificates and two-year diplomas to post-diploma programs, with foundational learning and academic upgrading for adults and English for Academic Purposes for newcomers. Practical Nursing is the program it is best known for; Software Development, Early Childhood Education, Business Administration, Cybersecurity Solutions, Game Development and Advanced Film Production through the new Centre for Entertainment Arts are among the most popular, and new programs in Machine Learning, Psychiatric Nursing and Esports Business Management show where the college is growing: technology and the creative industries.

Jonathas Franz has been at the college for 14 years in different roles and has been its Student Awards Officer since 2023. He works on the Financial Empowerment team, ten people inside Student Services (until recently called Student Success Services) who also run student loan help, funding advising and financial coaching. Two of the ten are dedicated to awards: Jonathas and a student awards advisor.

Between them, they manage about 300 types of awards and about $1.7 million a year, a figure that has been increasing slowly.

Why three competitions a year

Jonathas's sense is that many Canadian institutions, universities in particular, run a single award competition a year. Bow Valley College runs three, one for each intake: winter (January to the end of April), spring (May to the end of August, with regular classes rather than summer school) and fall (September to the end of December).

The reason is fairness to students in short programs. "Some students are only with us for a short time," Jonathas says. "They might start a certificate program in May, complete their second term in September, and graduate by December. That's why running three awards competitions throughout the year is so important. It gives students in shorter programs a fair opportunity to apply for awards while they are still with us." Each competition gives learners about two months to apply.

Two months to apply, two weeks to review, funds out by month end

Of more than 10,000 students a year, about 1,800 apply for awards each cycle. Most awards are aimed at students in credit programs; the total also includes continuing education learners in non-credit classes that would not qualify for awards.

Every term follows the same shape. Applications close on the first of the month: March 1 for the winter intake, July 1 for spring, November 1 for fall. From the 1st to the 15th, every volunteer reviewer at the college is reading and scoring. Recipients are selected shortly after the 15th, and funds are distributed by the end of March, July and November.

"It's a pretty fast turnaround," Jonathas says. "They get their money when they need it."

A panel of three, and 40 to 60 volunteers

Fairness at Bow Valley College has a specific definition: every application is read by a panel of three. With about 1,800 applications in a cycle, that is roughly 5,400 assessments in a two-week window. An assessment might be an essay, a reference letter, or sometimes two essays and a reference letter; the complex ones are the minority.

Jonathas credits easy reviewer account setup with making that scale workable.

What came before

In 2021, the college's previous awards platform was no longer meeting its needs because of limited capacity and functionality. The platform did not provide the level of accessibility or ease of navigation needed to support an effective experience for either students or staff.

As the team explored options for a new platform, the primary goals were to improve the student experience, accessibility and overall functionality. The new system needed to integrate with the college's Student Information System (SIS), support single sign-on, be mobile friendly and meet appropriate security requirements. It also needed to accommodate awards for both prospective and current students, provide robust reporting capabilities and offer reliable vendor support. The college was not looking at donor management at the time, although AwardSpring offers donor management capabilities.

After reviewing and evaluating multiple systems, the college selected AwardSpring as its awards platform in July 2021. Today every award is centralized in Student Services and runs through one portal; faculty involvement is limited to reference letters and nominations.

Support, a budget calculator and three jobs on one platform

Ask Jonathas what stands out about AwardSpring and he starts with support and steady improvement. He has lost count of the tickets he has submitted that turned into changes in the product, and he notices the difference every time he logs in.

"It's exciting to see the constant effort for improvement. Every time I log in, I see something got better."

Jonathas Franz, Student Awards Officer, Bow Valley College

Some of that work is specific to Bow Valley College. AwardSpring built a custom budget calculator for the college, where students enter their expenses and income so the team can understand financial need. Among the few institutions he has compared notes with, none has anything similar.

The college uses AwardSpring for three distinct needs. Entrance awards run through a special link where prospective students create a profile, since they are not yet in the student database. Regular awards serve students already in classes. And the emergency bursary, which helps students stay enrolled, is open all year with no deadline and is managed in AwardSpring too.

Where they are now

Since the switch in July 2021, Bow Valley College has taken in over 23,000 applications, read about 71,000 essays and disbursed just over $6 million in awards. Jonathas is careful about how he frames those numbers. "There's a lot of work that goes into raising these funds," he says, "and there's also a lot of logistics involved in making sure the money actually reaches the students who are most deserving." Three competitions a year, a panel of three on every application and funds out by month end are how a team of two, with up to 60 colleagues behind them, handles the logistics.

"There's a lot of work that goes into raising these funds, and there's also a lot of logistics involved in making sure the money actually reaches the students who are most deserving."

Jonathas Franz, Student Awards Officer, Bow Valley College