On the heels of rising college tuition costs and the start of a new academic year, some college students are calling on everyone from the government, celebrities and corporations to help them pay for their tuition with the hashtag #PayMyTuitionChallenge.
Just like the ALS’s Ice Bucket Challenge — which promotes awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and has raised $100 million dollars in donation for research — students are giving wealthy people 24 hours to respond to their request. Even though some nominees like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, President Barack Obama and Jay Z haven’t responded to the students’ requests, one organization has accepted the challenge.
Blackboard Inc., an education software developer, recently gave $25,000 in scholarships to three students to help cover college tuition costs.
Kathleen Ross, a graduate student at Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia was awarded $15,000, while Keeyuania Pannell, an elementary education major at University of Southern Mississippi and Tochukwu Ezeaba, who specializes in health care education at William Carey University, were each rewarded $5,000.
To earn a scholarship, Blackboard accepted the challenge and asked students to submit answers to the question: “How will you use your education to make the world a better place?”
Students had the option to submit their answers in the form of a video, photo or written response, and were told to share and have others vote-on their responses. The student with the most vote would win $15,000 and second and third place winners will each receive $5,000.
“I’m so thankful that Blackboard offered this opportunity. Winning this scholarship is a huge help to ease the burden off student loans,” Ross told USA Today College. “It’s very stressful to work two jobs while being a full time student and trying to maintain a high GPA.”
Ross is pursuing a Masters of Public Heath degree in epidemiology, a four-year program that costs her over $30,000 per year. She has to take out direct unsubsidized loans to offset the cost.
Blackboard accepted the challenge on August 22, and gave students between August 25-29 at noon ET to submit their responses and earn votes.
“All the support from my family and friends means the world to me,” says Ross.”It was great seeing all my friends as invested in the contest as I was. I couldn’t have done it without them. Once I was in sixth place, I was starting to feel confident because so many of my family members and friends were sharing the link. I started having strangers sharing the link and the votes just came pouring in. Once I hit third place, I was pretty sure I had it in the bag.”
Ross received a total of 3094 votes, while Pannell and Ezeaba respectively earned 2532 and 2480 votes.
In her winning response to Blackboard, Ross talked about her studies that allowed her to work at a Women’s Center in Morant Bay, Jamaica, an alternative school system for pregnant teenagers and young mothers. There she said she developed a health education curriculum to teach the teenagers and young mothers skills that promote healthy lifestyles. She aspires to one day work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to help combat disease in third-world countries and conduct epidemiological research.
Pannell, on the other hand, says she wants to use education to empower youths in community, while Obinna plans to take his health care education back to his home in rural Africa.
While many students may find the #PayMyTuitionChallange unproductive, since the celebrities they have asked hasn’t responded, USA Today College has seen a lot of comical and clever responses from participants.