ClearPath

"Your next step toward the support you qualify for"

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Inspiration

Millions of students miss scholarships and educational support programs because eligibility requirements are scattered across multiple websites and can be difficult to understand. Students often spend hours researching opportunities only to discover later that they do not qualify.

We wanted to build a solution that acts as a second brain for students, helping them navigate scholarships more efficiently and confidently. Our goal was to make scholarship discovery simpler, more transparent, and more accessible through AI-assisted eligibility analysis.

What it does

ClearPath is an AI-powered scholarship eligibility navigator.

Users complete a guided questionnaire covering academic performance, income background, education level, location, and other relevant factors. ClearPath then analyzes the student's profile and compares it against scholarship eligibility criteria.

The platform provides:

  • Personalized scholarship recommendations
  • AI-generated eligibility reasoning
  • Confidence indicators
  • Verification guidance and next steps
  • Responsible AI safeguards

ClearPath never guarantees eligibility. Instead, it identifies opportunities a student may qualify for and encourages verification through official sources.

How we built it

We built ClearPath using:

  • React
  • Vite
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Google Gemini API
  • Vercel

The application uses a multi-step questionnaire to collect student information and transform it into a structured profile.

We created a scholarship dataset containing real scholarship programs and developed a recommendation engine that evaluates eligibility criteria against user responses.

For AI-assisted analysis, we integrated Gemini to generate personalized reasoning and recommendation explanations. We also implemented a rule-based fallback engine to ensure recommendations remain available even when AI services are unavailable.

// Simplified recommendation flow

User Profile
    ↓
Eligibility Evaluation
    ↓
AI Reasoning (Gemini)
    ↓
Scholarship Recommendations
    ↓
Verification Guidance

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was balancing AI flexibility with transparency and reliability.

Scholarship eligibility rules vary significantly, and we wanted recommendations to remain understandable rather than functioning as a black box.

Other challenges included:

  • Handling AI API failures gracefully
  • Building a reliable fallback recommendation engine
  • Improving mobile responsiveness
  • Designing a clear loading experience during AI analysis
  • Ensuring recommendations remained explainable and trustworthy

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a fully functional scholarship recommendation platform
  • Successfully integrated AI-assisted reasoning
  • Added transparent recommendation explanations
  • Implemented responsible AI safeguards
  • Created a responsive and polished user experience
  • Deployed a live production-ready web application
  • Added a real scholarship dataset instead of sample programs

What we learned

This project taught us that responsible AI is just as important as powerful AI.

Users need to understand not only what recommendation was generated, but also why it was generated.

We also gained practical experience with:

  • Frontend application development
  • API integration
  • Prompt engineering
  • Deployment workflows
  • Recommendation system design
  • Building trustworthy AI-powered user experiences

What's next for ClearPath

Our long-term vision is to transform ClearPath into a comprehensive educational opportunity navigator.

Future improvements include:

  • Expanding the scholarship database
  • Adding state-specific opportunities
  • Supporting grants and fellowships
  • Improving eligibility modeling
  • Multilingual support
  • Document assistance and application guidance
  • Enhanced accessibility features

Our goal is to help students discover opportunities they might otherwise never find and make educational support more accessible to everyone.

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