Helping More Students Reach College Through Smarter Technology 

Pictured: Christopher Mance II, Chief Technology Officer for The Scholarship Academy, with summer intern Mahlangu Nzunda

Navigating scholarships, financial aid, college applications, and FAFSA deadlines can be overwhelming, especially for first-generation college students and families unfamiliar with the process. With support from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s AI Opportunity Accelerator, The Scholarship Academy is developing a new mobile app that helps students stay on track while giving advisors more time to provide meaningful support. 

For many students, getting into college isn’t the hardest part. Figuring out how to pay for it can be. 

Scholarship applications, financial aid forms, college essays, FAFSA requirements, and deadlines often span multiple websites, platforms, and timelines. For first-generation college students and families navigating the process for the first time, it can quickly become overwhelming, and missing a single step can mean missing out on critical financial support. 

The Scholarship Academy is working to solve that. 

The Atlanta-based nonprofit helps students and families confidently navigate scholarships, financial aid, and college planning, with a focus on creating a stronger financial aid culture and ensuring students don’t miss opportunities that could make college more affordable. Through partnerships with schools, school districts, and nonprofit organizations, The Scholarship Academy equips students with the tools and guidance they need to pursue higher education.  

Putting College Planning in Students’ Hands 

Through the Community Foundation’s AI Opportunity Accelerator, The Scholarship Academy developed a new mobile application that connects directly to its existing Virtual Scholarship Center platform. 

The app gives students a single place to view personalized next steps, track scholarship and college application progress, monitor FAFSA milestones, schedule appointments with advisors, communicate with case managers, and access other resources—all from the device they use most. Parents and authorized family members can also view student progress, creating a more coordinated support system.  

Expanding Impact Through Innovation 

The project also demonstrated how increased staff capacity paired with technology can multiply the capacity of small nonprofits. 

Working alongside Partnership for Innovation (PIN) summer intern Mahlangu Nzunda, Mance and team co-developed the mobile application in approximately eight weeks. Together, they used AI to streamline planning, software development, testing, documentation, and troubleshooting while maintaining human oversight throughout the process.  

The result is more than a new mobile app. The team also created reusable development processes, standardized documentation, and technical infrastructure that will support future enhancements and allow the organization to continue growing its impact.  

Strengthening the Capacity of Community Organizations 

Alongside partners like Google, Project Evident, and PIN, the Community Foundation is helping nonprofits increase their capacity to advance their missions. For The Scholarship Academy, that meant creating a solution that makes college planning more accessible while increasing the number of students its team can effectively support. 

As the mobile app rolls out during the 2026–2027 school year, The Scholarship Academy will begin tracking measures such as student engagement, completion of recommended tasks, counselor intervention patterns, and overall student success.  

By investing in organizations like The Scholarship Academy, the Community Foundation is helping nonprofits build the tools, systems, and capacity they need to serve more people and strengthen communities across metro Atlanta. 

Growing nonprofit capacity through AI

Through a partnership with the Partner for Innovation (PIN) Summer Internship Program, CFGA is helping nonprofits build long-term capacity through responsible AI. Four organizations that completed CFGA’s Google-sponsored AI Opportunity Accelerator, The Scholarship Academy, the Latin American Association, Soul Food Cypher, and Georgia ACT, were paired with college interns to implement, strengthen, and document their AI projects. This internship program ensures the tools and practices developed through the Accelerator can be sustained and shared across the nonprofit sector. This pilot builds on the Foundation’s 2025 investment of $1 million, sponsored by Google, to equip 17 nonprofits with the training, resources, and support needed to responsibly adopt AI and strengthen their impact.