George Washington University’s Platform for the People
Mere blocks from the White House, World Bank and National Mall, the George Washington University (GW) sits at the epicenter of global influence — where policy and history unfold daily. As one of the nation’s most internationally diverse and politically engaged campuses, GW serves nearly 30,000 students from all walks of life, united by a mission to deliver exceptional experiences and prepare future leaders for global excellence.
But behind the scenes, the university’s digital infrastructure told a different story. An aging homegrown student portal — what Nadya Rose, GW’s Manager of Web & Mobile Services, called “a cumbersome link farm” — struggled to keep pace with the university’s needs. Meanwhile, Annette Thomson, Executive Director of Web & Mobile Strategy, juggled content updates across multiple platforms, and Hanna McCathren, Digital Transformation Specialist, watched students wrestle with fragmented and frustrating digital experiences.
With their third-party mobile app contract ending and the portal in dire need of an overhaul, Rose, Thomson and McCathren recognized an opportunity to upgrade and create cohesive, accessible and engaging digital campus experiences.
The Tipping Point
In 2022, the university managed two separate instances for web and mobile student portals, each with limitations, including minimal integration with Ellucian Banner. The mobile app lacked modern UI and functionality, while the 20+ year-old web portal had become bloated with content and challenging to manage. “Although we built and maintained the portal, we didn’t have the continued bandwidth to completely redesign it in-house,” Rose recalled.
Thomson found the content management demands equally unsustainable. ”Updating content across both a mobile app and web portal duplicated a lot of work,” she said. “We saw an opportunity to unify those experiences into something more robust — role-based, streamlined and more deeply integrated with our core systems.”
GW’s existing setup felt painfully stale — and without the internal capacity to fully support or rebuild the system, the university needed to explore a new path forward. With web/mobile parity and a highly integrated campus portal as its North Star, GW set out to consolidate its mobile app, homegrown portal and various other systems into a single, cohesive digital experience.
Choosing the Right Partner
As part of a broader campus-wide Salesforce evaluation, the university considered adopting Salesforce’s portal — but as the team explored alternatives, Pathify quickly emerged as the leading choice for a modern, student-centered experience. “Immediately, we found Pathify very appealing,” Rose recalled. “The modern interface, along with out-of-the-box features and extensive customization, really stood out.” Beyond technical merits, Pathify’s rapid development strategy and responsiveness to customer feedback aligned closely with GW’s vision. “We needed a partner to keep pace with us, not slow us down,” Thomson added.
Rose highlighted Pathify’s widget-based dashboard, allowing her team to surface dynamic windows into core systems (rather than static links), while Thomson appreciated the built-in accessibility features and full web/mobile parity. “Designing once and deploying everywhere made a huge impact on our content management processes,” said Thomson.
But nothing proved more compelling than Pathify’s Flow middleware, which created immediate buy-in by accelerating development timelines and simplifying integrations across systems… without building from scratch. “Flow got my team on board very quickly,” said Rose. “It empowered us to build faster and focus on strategic improvements instead of spending months rebuilding functionality.”
United in Launch
Implementing the new “myGW” became an unexpected catalyst for breaking down the normal siloes separating university business units. Unlike typical vendor training followed by a separate implementation process, Pathify combined learning and building into one collaborative experience. “Pathify blended training with standing up our new portal,” Rose recalled. “Annette works in marketing, I’m in IT. Going through training and launch together turned us into one unified task force, all working towards launching the new ‘myGW.’”
Thomson echoed the impact. “There’s much to consider from both the content and technical perspectives,” she shared. “Having everyone in the same room to talk through all the logistics and details made the entire rollout process more efficient and cohesive.”
Innovation and Impact
Since launching in Spring 2024, GW continues taking a deliberate approach to rolling out new features like Pathify Forms and Communities (Groups and Events). McCathren pointed to internal affinity groups of staff and students as an early win.
The organic momentum continues with the GW Law School launching on “myGW” in summer 2025. With a university-wide brand refresh on the horizon, Thomson anticipates even more opportunity to incorporate “myGW” into the larger campus community ahead.
Charting a New Campus Experience
For Rose, the transformation from an outdated link farm to a streamlined digital hub reflects a deeper shift. “It’s more than a facelift,” she shared. “The new ‘myGW’ represents a fundamental change in how we approach the student experience.” Together, these thoughtful steps sparked a movement — one that continues reshaping GW’s digital campus into a unified, evolving experience rooted in connection, purpose and long-term impact.
About The George Washington University
- Student Headcount: 25,374
- Institution Type: Private university
- Location: Washington, D.C.
- Tech Stack:
- SIS: Ellucian Banner
- LMS: Blackboard
- Productivity: Google and Microsoft
- Technology Consolidated into Pathify: Link farm portal, mobile application, campus groups tool, ad hoc campus forms
In the heart of our nation’s capital with additional programs in Virginia and online, the George Washington University (GW) was created by an Act of Congress in 1821. Today, GW is the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia and a member of the American Association of Universities (AAU). GW offers comprehensive programs of undergraduate and graduate liberal arts study, as well as degree programs in medicine, public health, law, engineering, education, business, and international affairs. Each year, GW enrolls a diverse population of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from across the country and around the world. Learn more at gwu.edu.
