College Planning Tour Earns Sallie Mae 2018 Financial Marketing Award

Business Wire

Gramercy Institute Recognizes Sallie Mae for 'Dee-1’s Knowledge for College Tour'

NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sallie Mae, the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company, was honored with a 2018 Financial Marketing Strategy Award from the Gramercy Institute in recognition of “Dee-1's Knowledge for College Tour.” The tour, a partnership with educator-turned-hip-hop-artist Dee-1, is an ongoing initiative to educate high school students about the benefits of going to college, how to plan and pay for it, and why a degree matters.

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Sallie Mae employees receive the 2018 Financial Marketing Strategy Award from The Gramercy Institute. Pictured left to right is Bill Wreaks, CEO, Gramercy Institute and Sallie Mae employees Lillian Lowe, Lisa-Marie Jackson, and Jenny Cook. (Photo: Business Wire)

Gramercy Institute, the world’s leading network of senior marketers for financial institutions, evaluated entries based on strategy, innovation, and results. Since launching the tour, Sallie Mae and Dee-1 have engaged thousands of high school students across the country, giving away more than $190,000 in college scholarships. The campaign also earned a Governor’s Financial Literacy Award for Planning for College Efforts from the state of Wisconsin.

“Dee-1’s Knowledge for College Tour is an impactful way to connect high school students with the information and inspiration they need to create an actionable plan for college,” said Martha Holler, senior vice president, Sallie Mae. “There’s a strong desire for financial literacy information in high schools around the country. This tour creates an opportunity to channel the energy and motivation of Dee-1 while sharing information about our planning tools, helping us prepare families to have important discussions about their future.”

Sallie Mae offers free college planning tools like Scholarship Search, home to more than 5 million scholarships collectively worth more than $24 billion, and the College Planning Calculator, which allows users to see the full cost of college, not just tuition.

The collaboration between Sallie Mae and Dee-1 also included the “Pay Off Your Student Loans Playlist,” a set of tips and resources to help students understand and manage student loan payments, and the #MissionFinish contest, which paid off $10,000 in eligible Sallie Mae loans to a customer who creatively shared how paying off student loans would change his life.

For more information about saving, planning, and paying for college, visit SallieMae.com.

Sallie Mae (Nasdaq: SLM) is the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae offers products that promote responsible personal finance, including private education loans, Upromise rewards, scholarship search, college financial planning tools, and online retail banking. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.