Yes, we are talking about over 18 trillion dollars. That is our national debt. That means that individually, each American owes about $57,000 to the national debt. These alarming figures are why Duquesne University led an “Up to Us” campaign to raise awareness about this issue.

The “Wildcard Event” that we hosted on February 4, 2015, was in conjunction with a few other campus organizations, including the Net Impact Graduate and Undergraduate chapters. At this event, students were able to gain insight on how the budget works from Allegheny County Executive, Rich Fitzgerald. He talked about national and local budget allocations, spending, and government subsidies for certain projects. The event lasted about an hour and included a lively Q&A session. The success of this event gave us encouragement as we approached My Two Cents Day.

We came up with the name “Taco bout Debt” for our My Two Cents Day event based on the strategy: “Give us your pledge and offer us your two cents regarding the national debt, or take a selfie with us and tweet/Facebook/Instagram it, and we will give you a FREE Taco!” We had students lining up to take the pledge and, of course, the word spread like wildfire. The five of us — Peter, Jacob, Jamie, Dan and I — took shifts between classes to make sure the event was operating smoothly. Jacob and Peter also took the initiative to wear taco costumes for the event. This attracted a significant amount of attention and also got students and faculty lining up for photos with us. At around 6:00p.m, the student traffic started declining, and we had given away approximately 500 tacos. We were all proud of our achievements for the day, and we knew we could do even more with the week we had left. After the event ended, we counted up our sticky notes from our “Graffiti Wall” and had over 50 ideas and statements from students regarding the national debt.

The photos taken during these events can be seen on our Up to Us Facebook Page, Instagram and Twitter. This challenge got many students thinking about the national debt. Not only were we able to educate the students and faculty at Duquesne, but also had the opportunity to learn more about the debt ourselves. Hopefully soon we can inspire others to take action and one day make America debt free!