Raise the Bar
If you’re at a top 40 school in the ONE Campus Challenge so far this year, congratulations! We are super excited by the actions pouring in and the number of different students and schools submitting them. Really awesome.
But you may have noticed that, just like material wealth in the real world, the vast majority of OCC points are concentrated in the hands of a relative few. The points quickly drop off from upwards of 100,000 in the top 10 to the 10,000s on page 3…and school #100 only has 3,610 points.
So here’s the challenge for those schools in the top 40: help build the college anti-poverty movement and raise the level of OCC competition by engaging a school ranked lower than yours. Consider starting in the 80-100 rankings.
If you can pick a school close to yours and actually visit to table, great. But we don’t expect you to do that. You can accomplish a whole lot, just online — and earn points for your own school in the process:
- Online Sleuthing. Google a school to find its .edu website, and poke around the school’s site for student groups, ONE partner organizations, International Development professors or individuals who might be interested in ONE. Send us the school’s name, address and 5 email addresses for groups or individuals who might be interested, and we’ll give you 100 points per email address.
- Engage on Facebook and Twitter. Post a few lines of OCC explanation and a link to one.org/campus on a message board or the school’s Facebook page — or even the school’s sports team fan page — or tweet at the school for 150 points.
- Email people who might be interested. Just send them a short overview of what OCC is, and a couple of points you think are important (maybe how we make a difference, info on this month’s challenge, or some of the prizes). Provide us the person or group’s email address and what you sent them for 500 points.
- Snail-mail the school. Find the address for the school’s International Relations department, student center, study abroad center, etc. and snail-mail them some info about OCC and a few fliers and sign up sheets they can post on their bulletin boards. Do a good job and this could be worth 1,000 points.
Not all schools have strong online communities, so you might have to visit a few sites before you find a school you can engage. And you might have to think creatively in terms of people and groups that might be interested in ONE. But if you’re successful, you’ll not only be raising the bar for the competition — you’ll also be strengthening the next generation of global anti-poverty advocates and helping ONE build a bigger, better team in the struggle that REALLY matters.
Tell us what you did and whom you reached as a Make Your Own Action, and we’ll award points accordingly. If you hear back from people, let us know and we’ll give you points for following up too. If you can help recruit an active, action-submitting campus leader at a school ranked lower than 80, we’ll be SUPER impressed.
Good luck!
-Emily Stivers
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