About Us

After meeting hundreds of students who needed help funding their higher education, Suzanne Tyson decided she would help them find new and innovative ways that they could pay.

While Suzanne knows better than most that there are millions of dollars of “free” money out there for students-lots of scholarships for the brainiacs and uber-humans among us (10%-20% of students) and ample funds for those in dire financial need (10%-20% of students), the pickings are slim for all the rest. The “Middle Sixty”, as Suzanne has dubbed them, have a hard time winning academic scholarships and they can’t qualify for financial need-based awards. Where was there a source of “socialistic” funds? The kind that everyone could access, without writing an essay or submitting an application? Funds that didn’t come with a ball and chain?

Then one day Suzanne opened her wallet and counted eleven (11!) Loyalty Program membership cards she regularly used. “What if,” she thought, “what if the Loyalty Program points she and 90% of her fellow Canadians collected could be used to help students – their own children, children of family members, the children of close friends or even employees– to pay for school?”

And so the journey began and continues ….

Thousands of Canadian students and their families have redeemed hundreds of millions of loyalty points to create $2 million dollars (yes, millions!) in tuition and student loan payments - and growing by the day—making HigherEdPoints the largest source of private sector educational funding in the country--available to any and all students in Canada.

There are over 130 Canadian participating institutions, including universities and colleges, along with the federal governments’ Canada Student Loan Program, OSAP and Alberta Student Aid. And through HigherEdPoints’ Ways to Pay for School seminars and events, students and their families have a one-stop resource at their fingertips to make planning and paying for education much more comfortable.

Suzanne’s entrepreneurship and innovation have been recognized by:

 Suzanne will be the first to tell you that HigherEdPoints wasn’t built in a day or by a single person. Suzanne is supported and encouraged by scores of friends, colleagues, cheerleaders, helpful networkers, and heavy lifters. Because of them, the vision is now a reality. Thank you to everyone who continues to share the grand vision.