Ask Benji helps Arizona families complete the FAFSA as quickly and easily.
For Schools
Are you interested in bringing Ask Benji to your school or district?
Learn why more than 100 Arizona high schools have partnered with Ask Benji.
Why was Ask Benji created?
Ask Benji was created to help Arizona families apply for financial aid to support higher education. It is the result of a joint partnership between Education Forward Arizona and Arizona State University. The goal: Help students and families complete the FAFSA as quickly and easily as possible.
What is Ask Benji?
Benji uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with its open bot platform to help students get answers to their FAFSA questions instantly—all they need to do is text “Hi Benji.” Ask Benji has been programmed with nearly 100K different types of responses to questions students and parents may have while they are working through their FAFSA. As more Arizona students and parents use this service, the tool will learn and be able to respond to more questions and unique circumstances.
How does Ask Benji work?
Ask Benji is free for students and free for schools. It is not an app, and no download is required. You can communicate with Benji via your cell phone.
Once a person has texted Ask Benji, it will respond to the dialogue with answers to questions or links to resources. Ask Benji will capture data such as name, high school, and graduation year in order to send timely, relevant nudges to encourage users to complete the FAFSA and other time sensitive items.
Why should your students use Ask Benji?
Ask Benji provides immediate, expert FAFSA assistance to students and parents.
Ask Benji will prompt students and families to stay on top of FAFSA dates and events.
All questions sent to Ask Benji are completely confidential.
Ask Benji is free for students and schools
.Ask Benji will send postsecondary reminders to students and reminders about deadlines.
Built By Arizona Institutions, for Arizona Students
The Arizona FAFSA Challenge aims to increase the completion rate for the FAFSA among Arizona high school seniors each year. For more resources on how your school can help increase FAFSA completion rates, visit the FAFSA Challenge.