March 15, 2016
Read time : 11 min

Our journey with the Up to Us competition began in the fall of 2015. After a successful phone interview, team leaders traveled to the Net Impact 2015 conference held in Seattle, Washington. We had the privilege of learning from trailblazers who were experienced in social entrepreneurship and driving social change. It was at this conference that I met all the team leaders from other participating schools who would eventually become my competitors, but more so, my friends. Together, we went through an intensive training session led by our awesome mentors, Dan, Athalia, and “Hype Sam!” As we brainstormed various ideas, discussed the importance of the national debt issue, and roamed the streets of Seattle together looking for the “original Starbucks coffee shop,” I realized how amazing it was to be surrounded by a diverse group of millennials who despite their differences were united in a common mission: raising awareness of the national debt.

Together with my teammates Haylee Reed, Jonas Winkelman, and David Siegle, we set out on a mission to educate and empower our student body on the issue of the national debt. Given that we are a small private college, it was important to us that we focused on the quality (not quantity) of our message and end-result. Our school encourages all students to participate in the process of reflective judgment and critical thinking; we used these principles to our advantage and incorporated them into our message and campaign. We also made a commitment to working in partnership with other groups on campus in order to maximize impact.

We began our journey with our “My Two Cents Day” activities. We approached our Student Government and proposed legislation to declare October 22nd “National Debt Awareness Day.” Our team successfully made presentations at the Senate meeting and General Assembly, which resulted in a unanimous vote in favor of the bill! The Student Government also pledged logistical support for our activities which helped our campaign a lot. And so, on My Two Cents Day, our team members, along with some Senators from the Student Government, delivered 15-minute in-class presentations within the undergraduate program. Immediately after making the presentations and answering audience questions, team members asked that the students sign the My Two Cents Day pledge form (which the majority of them did). We were overwhelmed by the support we received and successfully managed to engage 50% of our residential undergraduate students! We then had the opportunity to travel to Nashville, Tennessee to attend the Tennessee Inter-Collegiate State Legislature held at the State Capitol. It was at this conference that we met with Secretary of State Tre Hargett; he congratulated us on our efforts and emphasized the importance of students being part of the dialogue surrounding the national debt.

After returning from winter break, it was time for us to kick our campaign into full gear! Seeing how successful we were in partnering with Student Government, we decided to expand our list of partners. As such, we secured support from the Athletics Department, the cheerleading team, the Centre for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, Pioneer Business Club, Residence Life, Tusculum Baptist Church (where a lot of our students attend), the men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Communications Office, Centre for Civic Advancement, and the School of Business.

We launched our main campaign by tabling outside our cafeteria during peak hours; we conducted a quiz duo competition where students could win candy by answering questions on the national debt. In order to compete, students had to bring a friend to compete with them. The winning student then received candy with a national debt fact attached to it. This strategy enabled us to maximize participation and spread the message. After this event, we worked with the athletics department to coordinate an awareness campaign on the national debt at a very popular NCAA Division II basketball home game in which our school team competed with the current national #1 team, Lincoln Memorial. At this “National Debt Basketball Game,” our team handed out national debt awareness flyers to guests as they walked into the arena; these flyers had raffle tickets attached to them. During half-time, our team went to center-court and announced the winning numbers. The winners then read out loud some facts they learnt from the flyer to all the guests in attendance and received a gift card. In addition to this, we pre-recorded brief PSAs on the national debt which were played before music during all the time-outs and breaks at this game. These messages were broadcast across the PA system, the Pioneer Network, and online through live streaming. We also encouraged all the guests to sign our pledge and make a commitment to national debt awareness. Those who did received free popcorn which was provided by our Student Affairs Office! After our very successful “National Debt Basketball Game,” we held a “Wheel of Fortune [or debt]” event in front of our cafeteria. Whereas our Quiz Duo was an opportunity to broadcast information, we used this event as an opportunity to take the conversation a step further and start a dialogue. Students who successfully answered tougher questions and expressed their opinion on the national debt received candy with facts attached. In addition to the projects described above, core team members were responsible for conducting presentations on the national debt in 3 classes each, amounting to a total of 15 classes. We reached 85.5% of our undergraduate students.

As the competition drew to an end, we had to coordinate a wild-card activity. Despite “Snowmageddon 2.0,” our team quickly re-developed a wildcard campaign that was very successful. We organized a Ted-talk style forum where our students gathered at the Annie Hogan Byrd Auditorium in order to discuss the national debt and sought approval from the Arts and Lecture Committee of our school to classify the said event as an Arts and Lecture event. The event was approved unanimously and students attending the event received 1 hour of academic arts and lecture credit (a pre-requisite for graduation) for being a part of our program. Our core team members made presentations at this event and fostered a conversation with the participants. This was our opportunity to gauge the success of our campaign in terms of seeing how well we motivated and educated our peers: it was a resounding success and those who demonstrated an exceptional awareness of the issue received gift cards. We also unveiled our creative project titled “Money doesn’t grow on trees” at this event. Through this project, we attempted to re-inforce the message to the students by using all the signs/papers our peers completed at all our smaller events where we asked participants to write down why they care about the national debt; we hung these signs/papers on leafless trees all across our campus. In doing so, our peers had the opportunity to be reminded why the issue of the national debt is important and how it personally affects each individual. At the end of our campaign, we felt confident that it sufficiently enabled our peers to answer the questions they couldn’t answer in the beginning: why is the issue of the national debt important, and how does it affect you?

As we journeyed through this remarkable experience, our team has made countless friends, accomplished many things we didn’t think we were capable of, and learned so much on how to work together as a team and accomplish a great feat. Our setbacks were many, but through hard-work, determination, and an incredible support system (our partners), we were able to push through and effectively educate and empower our students on the issue of the national debt. One must never forget that it only takes a spark to get a fire going.

And in the end, it’s UP TO US!