Scholarship America & Zinch Announce Strategic Partnership

MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 21 --
Scholarship America, the nation's premier scholarship and educational support organization, and Zinch.com have forged an important relationship in support of America's youth.

This relationship will link the services that both organizations currently provide to youth, to assure that a greater number of students have access to information and services that will help them navigate their way to postsecondary programs. The relationship between the two organizations assures that students have more resources at their fingertips when they are using the tools available on Zinch.com.

"Utilizing our shared resources will result in more robust information available to individual students in one place," says Mim Schreck, President of Scholarship America. "More information means more opportunities for these students to be successful."

"Paying for college and navigating financial aid options can be daunting. This collaboration aims to demystify financial aid programs and fundamentally improve access to money for college," says Anne Dwane, President of Zinch.

Scholarship America is currently piloting the use of Zinch.com with one of its community-based scholarship foundations (called Dollars for Scholars chapters). The goal is to match eligible students who have a profile on Zinch to specific scholarship opportunities available through this Dollars for Scholars chapter.

In addition, Scholarship America has already provided informational articles for Zinch.com's e-newsletter to high school students, and will contribute articles each month on topics such as Scholarship Application Dos and Don'ts, Why Every Student Should Complete the FAFSA, and How to Select a College that will Treat Your Scholarship Fairly, among others.

The two organizations will also explore other options for collaborative efforts that support students' access to and achievement through postsecondary education.

About Scholarship America(R)
Scholarship America is the nation's premier scholarship and educational support service organization. Since 1958, more than 2 million students have received more than $2 billion in scholarship aid through Scholarship America's Dollars forScholars(R) and Scholarship Management Services(R) divisions. In fiscal year 2009, Scholarship America awarded more than $210 million in education assistance to more than 114,000 students. To learn more about Scholarship America and its programs, visit www.scholarshipamerica.org.

About Zinch.com
Zinch is the network connecting young people with opportunities. Over 1 million students have created Zinch profiles to be matched with 700 colleges and millions in scholarships. At Zinch, students showcase themselves as more than test scores and establish their first professional profile, complete with a personal URL for including in applications to schools, scholarships and internships. Colleges and graduate schools turn to Zinch to efficiently recruit students who would be great fits for their institutions.

SOURCE
Scholarship America Janine Fugate, Assistant Vice President, Communications, Scholarship America, +1-952-830-7307, jfugate@scholarshipamerica.org; or Sid Krommenhoek, Founder, Zinch, +1-801-380-4345, Sid@Zinch.com