Sauk Valley Community College (SVCC) embraces a future where investing in students and investing in the community go hand in hand. In collaboration with Chop Dawg, they’ve rolled out Earned Tuition—a groundbreaking app that unites high-school volunteers, parents, local organizations, and college staff under a single, streamlined platform. With every volunteer hour logged, students earn tuition credit, parents gain real-time oversight, and community groups effortlessly coordinate events. By turning community service into tangible educational rewards, SVCC and Chop Dawg are paving a brighter, more collaborative path toward college readiness.
Sauk Valley Community College’s vision echoes former United States First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s belief that strengthening local economies begins with actively supporting both students and small businesses. The Earned Tuition app embodies this philosophy: a unified digital solution where volunteer hours, scholarship discovery, and a collective drive toward academic success intersect. With Chop Dawg’s expertise, SVCC launched a platform that makes volunteering more accessible, keeps parents confidently informed, and helps nonprofits coordinate events with minimal effort.
At the heart of Earned Tuition lies an all-in-one dashboard accessible to students, parents, organization leaders, and SVCC administrators alike. Students can easily register for service opportunities, track milestones, and even convert completed hours into tuition savings. Parents or guardians get a bird’s-eye view of volunteer engagement and scholarship statuses, while community organizations find it simpler than ever to post events, manage signups, and verify attendance. Backed by Chop Dawg’s modern design and engineering prowess, Earned Tuition brings education, community service, and scholarship funding together in one cohesive app.
Before Earned Tuition, SVCC wrestled with a patchwork system of paper logs, scattered emails, and inconsistent data sharing. Students found it cumbersome to confirm volunteer hours, while parents struggled to keep tabs on progress or deadlines. Nonprofits, likewise, lacked a straightforward way to post and track service events, causing bottlenecks in scheduling and verification.
On top of that, promoting key FAFSA and scholarship deadlines posed its own challenge, often buried in emails or lost amidst busy schedules. SVCC recognized that it needed an all-encompassing digital platform to coordinate each step—from event discovery to tuition credit—while preserving the personal touch that fosters strong community ties. By targeting these connected issues, the college planned to not only streamline volunteer management but also enhance collaboration among students, parents, and local organizations.
When SVCC approached Chop Dawg, the goal was clear: transform a rough concept into a robust, fully functional mobile and web application. Together, we began with in-depth discussions involving admissions officers, community outreach managers, and local school representatives. These conversations helped us outline the app’s structure—focusing on volunteer logging, scholarship verification, and intuitive event creation.
Our design team produced low-fidelity wireframes, which we tested with students, teachers, and parents to refine navigation and feature placement. Then, in short, iterative development sprints, Chop Dawg tackled the app’s core functionalities. Weekly Zoom calls and daily Slack updates provided total transparency, allowing SVCC to monitor progress, offer immediate feedback, and watch the platform evolve. Once completed, we guided the application through Apple and Google approvals, set up its cloud infrastructure, and provided thorough staff training, ensuring a seamless launch.
From volunteer hour logging and real-time event postings to scholarship tracking, Earned Tuition delivers each user a clear pathway—empowering them to contribute, achieve, and celebrate milestones:
Students log community service hours, view upcoming opportunities, and even upload FAFSA confirmations—enabling them to keep pace with scholarship deadlines and inch closer to tuition savings.
Parents can monitor their child’s progress, see how many volunteer hours remain until the next milestone, and share achievements on social media with a single tap.
Local nonprofits create events with assigned hour “values,” record attendance, and confirm completed service—cutting paperwork and unifying all records in one user-friendly place.
College administrators oversee vendor registrations, track service events, verify uploaded financial aid forms, and generate robust PDF reports on engagement, scholarship readiness, and more.
Beyond user-facing essentials, sophisticated background tools and dynamic workflows empower SVCC to manage volunteer data and scholarship processes smoothly—maintaining accountability across every department:
Distinct signup processes for students, parents/guardians, and organizations ensure accurate data collection and secure validation—tailored to each user’s unique role.
Authorized staff swiftly verify funding forms, immediately updating each student’s progress bar and clarifying remaining steps before critical deadlines arrive.
Earned Tuition celebrates every volunteer milestone, deepening students’ sense of achievement while fostering community spirit. Badges further motivate consistent participation.
From selecting a robust tech stack to ensuring inclusivity for all users, Chop Dawg’s consulting arm provided strategic guidance across infrastructure, engagement, and compliance—positioning SVCC for a sustainable, future-ready platform.
Chop Dawg advised SVCC on adopting a stable architecture (React Native, React, Google Cloud, Firebase, and JavaScript) capable of handling thousands of volunteer logs without performance issues.
Our UX experts refined visuals, signup flows, and user navigation—encouraging frequent app usage and ensuring each audience (students, parents, organizations) finds the platform welcoming and straightforward.
Going beyond standard security, Chop Dawg integrated accessibility best practices for diverse high school communities. This approach ensures the Earned Tuition experience remains inclusive and user-friendly.
Throughout development, Chop Dawg and SVCC maintained steady alignment to keep the platform user-centered and adaptive. Weekly Zoom chats combined with dedicated Slack channels allowed college staff, local test groups, and our engineering team to exchange rapid feedback. Meanwhile, JIRA and Confluence tracked each sprint—from conceptual alpha versions to pre-launch refinements. Beta rollouts in area high schools gave us the chance to finalize the user experience, culminating in a stable app set to serve an ever-growing student base.
Post-launch, students across the region contributed thousands of service hours—significantly boosting nonprofits and community groups while inching closer to tuition benefits.
Parents, guardians, and educators applauded the platform for its clarity, intuitive layout, and transparent display of volunteer events and deadlines.
A growing roster of community groups posts volunteer opportunities each month, supported by real-time announcements, scholarship prompts, and automated reporting that reinforce the region’s commitment to higher education.
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If you’re looking for a way to unify student engagement, streamline volunteer management, and amplify scholarship awareness, a platform like Earned Tuition could be your winning formula. From bridging logistical gaps to fueling meaningful collaboration, Chop Dawg stands ready to help transform your vision into a fully realized digital product. Book a free 45-minute consultation today, and let’s explore how we’ll spark the same kind of community-driven innovation for your organization.
