We brought together our customer community for the first-ever Pathify Customer Summit. With a day full of swag giveaways, how-to tips and product features — safe to say it won’t be the last! Hundreds of trailblazers joined to nerd-out about slick portal designs and ways to better support students every step of their journey. Missed the live event or want to revisit your favorite sessions? Watch the recordings here — or check out a full recap below.

How I Made This: Design Your Portal with Humans in Mind

Choosing Pathify represents the first step toward a seamless digital experience. When building a dazzling Engagement Hub, institutions consider how best to meet the needs of their campus communities. In this session, panelists from Augusta University, Braven and Pima Community College shared tips and tricks for boosting engagement and delighting users.

  • Introduce a feedback widget to gain valuable insights from users
  • Focus on notifications that drive value to ‘hook’ students and drive adoption
  • Utilize analytics to make strategic tweaks, such as introducing students to the platform at the right point in their journey

Key Quotes

  • “We pushed announcements out with a GIF showing users how to customize their dashboards and then directed them to FAQs for extra support.” -Anna Becker, Pima Community College
  • “We followed up with every student who submitted feedback to learn more about their experience and even compensated them for their time. We adjust MyBraven based on how users interact with the platform.” -Courtney Dubin, Braven
  • “Everything a student might need — depending on their role — lives right in the portal. There’s no need to visit other sites.” -Aenea Clark, Augusta University

Stronger Together: Why Building Community Matters More Than Ever

Building strong, resilient communities matters more than ever. In this session, Pathify leadership and customers discussed strategies to create a consistent, reliable place for students and staff to engage — enabling institutions to navigate change together. Access to robust communities ensures students make it to the finish line of their journey. Ferris State University, DIS Study Abroad, Utah State University and Lassen Community College shared tips to support institutions looking to foster digital communities that are just as strong as their campus communities. Whereas social media platforms don’t offer enough oversight and other tools lack the modern, engaging interface today’s students expect — Pathify Communities allow institutions to provide safe, connective experiences. 

Key Quotes

  • “People are trying to build community, but the digital fatigue starts to set in for students, and they don’t know where to look… One home base, one login, one Ferris State bulldog community. More than our colors, more than our logo, that unified student experience is our brand. Increasingly, student experience is digital, but people still want to be in community.” -Eric Hazen, Ferris State University 
  •  “[In the future], platforms will cater more and more to individual student needs, rather than one broad formula that applies to everyone.” -Izzy Schamberger, DIS Study Abroad
  • “We’re excited about custom dashboards. We want to hone in on that, particularly for new students, designing the platform specifically for them so they can find the information they need quickly and easily.” -Calissa Beach Chandler, Utah State University
  • “Digital community was the driving force behind our choice to work with Pathify. Students wanted a place where they could get to know people and create connections before school even starts.” -Tara Bias, Lassen Community College

One Platform to Rule Them All: Consolidating Tech for Campus and Budget Efficiency

In today’s higher ed landscape, institutions must find ways to modernize and streamline experiences while operating within limited budgets. Washington College, University of the Pacific and Alabama A&M University discussed how Pathify helped maximize efficiency, consolidate systems and reduce spend. At each of these institutions, Pathify binds together all the other tech tools they use, creating a unified experience for every campus member.

Tips to optimize your technology investments:

  • Talk with your Account Manager who can show you new opportunities, products and best practices to maximize Pathify’s value at your institution.
  • Perform a tech stack audit to identify and eliminate duplicate tools, consolidate systems and streamline your tech stack.
  • Involve students early and often in the building process. Consider appointing a student administrator to create dashboards and integrations — allow their on-the-ground perspective and feedback to drive student-focused priorities and impact.
  • Look at the process of maximizing your Pathify products as a project to improve the business of the university, not just an IT project. Collaborate with business units such as marketing & communications and student life teams to ensure a unified approach.

Key Quotes

  • “We had over twenty-five different bulk email systems, spamming students incessantly with unique messages. We quickly identified the need to consolidate, and now we’re down to four or five. Now students know they only receive important messages, and they know what action they need to take. Compared with industry averages, which are around 30%, we see between 50-60% engagement rate on critical communications.” -Rob Henderson, University of the Pacific
  • “The average college student looks at their smartphone 150 times per day. With Pathify, students have an easy point of ingress to everything they need digitally on our campus. Implementing a central communication channel increased engagement significantly.” -Irv Bruckstein, Washington College
  • “With the robust content management system, we manage and edit content ourselves, which dramatically reduces invoices from our website content provider. Additionally, moving all that information out of the public domain and into the portal behind an SSO added a necessary layer of security.” -Irv Bruckstein, Washington College
  • “We consolidated four or five different platforms and continue to look for more consolidation opportunities. When purchasing a tool, I want to ensure we take full advantage of its services. All universities need to make cost-conscious decisions. We consolidated our mobile app, chatbot, intranet, groups, bulk email systems and single sign-on to Pathify. Next, we plan to look at Delegate Hub as our parent portal.” -Ryan Adkins, Alabama A&M University

Family Matters: Partnering with Parents and Delegates to Support Student Success

Navigating college takes a village — parents and families play a crucial role in student success. Shana Holman, Pathify’s VP of Customer Success, and Greg Wilson, Product Owner, discussed what matters to parents and advocates, as well as how to engage them effectively. They also gave a sneak peek at Pathify’s Delegate Hub — a powerful tool in keeping trusted individuals connected, engaged and involved.

Key insights:

  • Active family involvement leads to improved student outcomes. Students rely on families for support — and families need the right information and resources to help.
  • Families and loved ones play a key role in enrollment decisions.
  • Pathify’s Delegate Hub allows institutions to consolidate delegate-specific resources and communication into one personalized dashboard.

Roadmap Insights: Checking in on Pathify’s 2025 Product Plans

Chase Williams, CEO, and Jeff Ledoux, Director of Product, shared Pathify’s 2025 roadmap. New portal features like Hub Experience and Dashboard Creator enable institutions to bring a new level of customization to their portals and mobile apps.

Breaking Barriers One Chat at a Time: How Pathify’s GenAI Chatbot Supports Student Success

Accessing the right information at the right time empowers students to succeed. Pathify’s GenAI Chatbot smooths the student journey by providing answers to common questions and surfacing crucial services. Moderated by Kyle Towstik, Pathify’s Technical Support Specialist, CTO Chris Hagan, and Jeff Ledoux, Director of Product, demonstrated Pathify’s GenAI Chatbot in action — showcasing it as a secure and powerful solution to removing barriers for students. Pathify’s Chatbot matches the modes of content consumption familiar to digitally native students and provides the ability to find exactly what they need without knowing exactly what they need.

Customer Awards

Scott McGowan, Pathify’s Manager of Account Management, presented the first-ever Pathfinder Awards to customers who showcased innovative solutions and delightful user experiences.

Key Quotes

  • DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia received the Thriving Communities award. Groups sit at the core of their program, bringing students together from around the globe — engaging them in rich, whole-person learning experiences.
  • St. John’s University received the Great Hook award. St. John’s created the “View the line” widget — fast, reliable, embedded line cams at four food & beverage hot spots allow students to plan their mealtimes and snack breaks. Once they open the app to check the cam, many more resources await.
  • Rollins College received the Inspiring Flow Work award for their custom work on Student Balance, Campus Map and Print Balance widgets — just to name a few. Rollins identified opportunities to create a truly student-centric experience and boost audience engagement.