A company has promised to help Howard University students who were affected by the recent financial aid scandal that has rocked the historically black institution.
Scholly, a scholarship search-and-match platform, has launched a scholarship fund to award each affected student with up to $10,000 in funding, according to Black Enterprise.
The school is currently embroiled in a scandal after a whistleblower accused financial aid officials of misappropriating funds earmarked for low-income students. A university investigation discovered that from 2007 to 2016, employees who received tuition benefits to cover the cost of taking classes were also receiving university grants, according to news reports.
“To be clear, Scholly is not trying to vilify Howard. We are open to working with the university to identify the students affected and to make sure we help as many students as possible,” founder and CEO Christopher Gray told Black Enterprise.
Gray also told Blavity that the goal of the fund is to prevent students from having to drop out from Howard because of the incident.
“This kind of incident is now having students not want to enroll, and students are trying to transfer,” Gray said. He later added, “Our goal is to keep students from having to drop out, make sure they can graduate, and enroll or go back if they did drop out.”
Scholly first caught national attention when Gray appeared on Shark Tank. The company has since taken off, winning numerous awards for itself and Gray.