How Protégé Academy enrolled 112 students who couldn't afford tuition, and secured $377K in stable cash flow doing it.

Title IV covers most of the cost of career school. When it doesn't cover all of it, students disappear. Here's how one accredited Michigan academy filled the gap that Title IV can't reach, and built a stable, predictable revenue stream doing it.

Protégé Academy

Accredited vocational · Livingston + Mount Pleasant, MI

Let's chat

112

additional students enrolled who wouldn't have had funding otherwise

$377K

in stable, anticipated cash flow from Lumion payment plans

Zero

additional headcount required for collections or servicing

"The assistance Lumion has provided for gap funding has been huge. We have students that I know, firsthand, there's no possible way they would have been able to come up with the money up front to go to school."

Calvin S.Admissions Director · Protégé Academy

01 · The academy

Who they are

Protégé Academy is an accredited career school with locations in Livingston and Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Established in 2005 and accredited since December 2010, Protégé provides specialized education from qualified instructors and industry professionals. Their student profile is exactly the profile Title IV was designed to help. And exactly the profile Title IV alone often can't fully finance.

02 · The 112 students who couldn't have enrolled

The gap that Title IV doesn't cover

Title IV federal financial aid is the backbone of accredited career education. It funds the majority of students who walk through Protégé's doors. What it doesn't fund is the gap. The portion of tuition that falls between the maximum Title IV award and the total cost of the program.

For students without additional resources, that gap is the wall between enrolled and not enrolled.

Protégé's team saw students walk away from admission every year because they couldn't cover the gap. Not because they didn't want to be there. Not because they didn't qualify academically. Because the last $2,000 or $3,000 wasn't sitting in a bank account somewhere.

Lumion payment plans changed that.

112 students who otherwise couldn't have enrolled are now enrolled at Protégé.

Because the gap between what Title IV covered and what they owed became a manageable payment plan instead of a hard stop.

03 · The Title IV gap problem

What was broken before

Before Lumion, Protégé's payment infrastructure struggled with the same problem every Title IV school faces:

The pain the team could name

Payment options outside Title IV were limited to private lending, credit cards, or upfront cash
The payment plans that did exist lacked proper tracking and notification systems
Students who signed up for payment plans weren't held accountable for staying current
Collections work fell on Protégé's admissions and finance teams, pulling them away from student-facing work

Adding a payment plan on top of Title IV wasn't a technical problem. It was an operational one. Protégé needed a partner who could:

1Extend financing to students Title IV alone couldn't cover
2Handle the tracking, notification, and servicing without adding headcount
3Deliver predictable cash flow the school could plan around

04 · The playbook that closed the gap

Four moves that made Title IV + gap financing work as one system

Payment PlansTitle IV Gap FinancingAuto-RemindersPayment TrackingIn-House Servicing

Payment plans that sit on top of Title IV.

Lumion's payment plans specifically target the gap. The portion of tuition Title IV doesn't cover. Students still get their federal aid. Lumion covers what's left, on a payment plan that fits their budget.

Automated tracking and notifications.

No more manual outreach when a payment slips. Lumion tracks every plan, notifies students automatically, and flags accounts that need attention before they become collections problems.

In-house servicing that doesn't touch Protégé's payroll.

All the servicing work, student communication, tuition structuring, discrepancy resolution, sits with Lumion, not with Protégé's team.

Consistent, plan-backed cash flow the school can plan around.

Lumion's consistent repayment plans provide a reliable and stable source of income. That's the $377K number. Anticipated cash flow the school can count on despite fluctuations in admissions.

05 · The scoreboard

What Protégé's numbers say

112 additional students enrolled who wouldn't have had funding otherwise
$377K in stable, anticipated cash flow from Lumion payment plans
Zero additional headcount required for collections or servicing
Title IV gap financing integrated into the enrollment flow from day one
Consistent, plan-backed revenue that doesn't fluctuate with admissions cycles

The pattern for other Title IV schools: don't treat gap financing as a separate problem from your admissions system. Build the payment plan into the enrollment moment. And let a licensed servicer handle the operational weight while you focus on students.

06 · What's next

What's next

Protégé continues expanding across Michigan. Every new enrollment now has Lumion's gap financing as an option from day one. A specific, licensed, tracked payment plan on top of whatever Title IV can cover.

Want a similar story at your school?