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Jenzabar - Most Innovative Woman of the Year

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2021, Click to Enter The 2022 STevie Awards for Women in Business

Company: Jenzabar, Boston, MA
Entry Submitted By:fama PR
Company Description: Jenzabar is higher education’s trusted advisor, offering technology solutions and services that are tailored to fit the evolving needs of institutions both today and in the future. Collaborating with over 1,300 clients worldwide, we provide scalable software and services, designed to drive performance across campus and throughout the full student lifecycle, exclusively serving higher education.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Business Services

Nomination Title: Ling Chai Maginn, President, Founder & CEO

Before being named a winner for Ernst and Young’s 2021 New England region’s Entrepreneur of the Year award,Ling Chai Maginn wasa student leader at the Tiananmen Square movement that inspired the fall of the Berlin Wall. Facing imprisonment and possible death at the hands of Chinese authorities, Ling went underground―eventually hiding in a cargo box for five days to escape to the United States.

Ling attended Princeton and Harvard Business School, where she realized how education can change people's lives. Ling’s later work at Bain Consulting made her realize that technology can help others achieve their potential through higher education. This encouraged Ling to found Jenzabar.

Ling has lived her life based on three guiding principles. Freedom for all, which pushed her to be a leader of the revolution in Tiananmen Square. Human rights for all, which led her to found All Girls Allowed, dedicated to ending China's brutal one-child policy. And education for all,which led her to found Jenzabar and create pathways for everyone to become their masterpiece.

As an avid human rights champion, Ling has received two Nobel Peace Prize nominations and has been called to testify before U.S. Congress eight times.

As student enrollment rates have fallen, higher education institutions are struggling to stay afloat in today’s increasingly online learning environment. This past year, small and community colleges were hit hardest and saw the largest decline in enrollments. Although investing in technology may seem like a costly project, modern solutions can invite more rewarding long-term opportunities and support a strong foundation for digital transformations that cater to the demands of today’s students. Faced with an inflection point, many institutions turned to Jenzabar for technology investments to improve the campus experience for students, increase staff satisfaction, and boost student retention.

When institutions had to make careful decisions with their technology investments,colleges and universities turned to Jenzabar’s solutionsto drive mission-critical digital transformation programs.

In October 2020, Jenzabar launched the multi-award-winning Jenzabar Chatbot, a digital engagement channel that works with any student information systems (SIS), and provides an always-on resource to answer student questions and reduce stress as colleges transitioned to remote learning models. Jenzabar Chatbot allows students to find the information they need from whatever device they are using without waiting in a queue.

The overnight switch to online learning at the onset of the pandemic introduced many challenges for institutions—including colleges and universities that thought they were well-versed in online learning—the transformation also shed light on underinvested areas or, in some cases, enabled IT and campus leaders to better identify where they can improve strategies.

According toInside Higher Ed’s 2021 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, during the pandemic, “83% of provosts thought the quality of courses was good or excellent, but only 45% said that student engagement was good or excellent, and only 31% saw faculty research as good or excellent.”

Facing unprecedented challenges brought about by the pandemic, colleges and universities were pressured to accelerate their digital transformations and increase the use of technology across campus. Student SIS, higher education-oriented enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Learning Management Systems, and other platforms are critical for institutions to deliver holistic student experiences online and offline.

Unfortunately, many institutions use IT systems in silos or have failed to properly integrate the platforms, so information is not shared easily across the IT environment. One of the biggest takeaways from 2020 was the importance of eliminating silos and enabling data transparency across campus so every department can engage with students better.

When students and staff were forced to engage with campus and learning activities remotely, institutions of higher learning turned to Jenzabar for its hybrid solutions and advanced communications systems that enabled seamless connectivity and operations, despite a change in location.

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