USA Funds' Support Enhances College and Student Loan Repayment Success

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- USA Funds®, a nonprofit organization that helps Americans benefit from higher education, has issued its annual report, highlighting its progress toward enhancing rates of student success in postsecondary education.

"Our organization's renewed vision is to make a measurable impact on student success in higher education by helping colleges and universities reduce student loan defaults, enhance their capabilities to serve their students, and increase their student success rates," said Carl C. Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO. "During the past year, we made significant progress in our new course in support of student success."

USA Funds' annual report describes the following success stories:

• One of the nation's leading private career college systems uses USA Funds Borrower Connect™, a Web-based borrower communication tool, to promote successful student loan repayment.
• Working with a USA Funds consultant, a Houston-area community college system has cut its student loan default rate by 30 percent during the past three years.
• Nonprofit organizations are applying two $1 million college success grants from USA Funds to enhance programs that help lower-income and first-generation students get into and through college.
• Using USA Funds Life Skills®, a financial literacy and student success program, a community college in southern Arizona teaches its financial aid recipients to better manage their money and helps students with academic challenges get back on track.
• Indiana's community college system uses training resources from USA Funds University to help keep staff at 27 financial aid offices around the state up to date on the latest federal student aid program requirements.

USA Funds is working to increase postsecondary education program completion and student loan repayment rates using the following approaches:

• Support to nonprofit colleges and universities that desire to make significant improvement in their student success and loan default rates but lack the resources to develop and carry out initiatives in those areas.
• A new grant-making strategy that aims to increase readiness for, as well as enrollment and success in postsecondary education.

USA Funds also continues to develop and deliver products and services that help postsecondary institutions improve their student loan default prevention, debt management and financial literacy results, and promote compliance with federal student aid program regulations.

To download a copy of the USA Funds annual report, visit www.usafunds.org/Media/Annual Reports/2011Annual.pdf.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, USA Funds is a nonprofit corporation that works to enhance postsecondary education preparedness, access and success by providing and supporting financial and other valued services. For more information about USA Funds, visit www.usafunds.org.

SOURCE USA Funds