UMassFive College Federal Credit Union Honored with Award, Scholarship

HADLEY — During the recent Empower U conference in Boston, Credit Union Student Choice presented its third annual Honor Roll Award to UMassFive College Federal Credit Union. The award recognizes excellence in higher-education financing and is given to the winning financial institution in conjunction with a $5,000 Chip Filson Scholarship, which may be awarded by the credit union to an outstanding student-member of its choice.

“UMassFive first launched its private student-lending program with Student Choice in 2009, and over the last 10 years they have built a strong and sustainable portfolio while helping thousands of members,” said Scott Patterson, president and CEO of Student Choice. “In addition to the value they have delivered to their members, they have also returned tremendous value back to Student Choice in the form of insightful feedback, strong collaboration on innovative marketing efforts, and helpful guidance that has been instrumental in the continued evolution of our solutions.”

Jon Reske, vice president of Marketing for UMassFive, accepted the award in Boston on behalf of the credit union. “The partnership we have with Student Choice is invaluable,” he said. “They’ve allowed us to help our members overcome higher-education funding challenges. Throughout our relationship, the Student Choice team has always been very receptive to ideas we’ve presented and extremely supportive in testing new marketing strategies with us. We look forward to putting the scholarship funds to good use.”

The scholarship was given to UMassFive College Federal Credit Union in honor of Chip Filson, a credit-union industry icon and former Student Choice board member, who played an influential role in the founding and ongoing development of Credit Union Student Choice.