Long Island, NY – The ONE Campaign announced today that Hofstra University won the first weekly competition posed by the ONE Campus Challenge. The first challenge to campuses was to sign-up as many students as possible in a single week, with Hofstra University’s ONE Chapter squeaking by the College of Charleston to win.

“Hofstra University took an early lead in the ONE Campus Challenge, muscling past the College of Charleston to win the first week’s challenge by signing up more than 540 new members of the ONE Campaign,” Kimberly Cadena, ONE Campaign spokesperson, said. “Hofstra’s ONE Chapter has been active on campus, tabling at events, holding regular meetings and doing outreach in local communities to raise awareness for ONE. ONE congratulates Hofstra students on their leadership in the fight against poverty and wishes them the best as they tackle the next week’s challenge.”

As a result of the win, Hofstra’s ONE chapter will receive 140 tickets to the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball, where Alicia Keyes, Gwen Stefani and other surprise guest performers are performing live. Alicia Keyes is the co-founder of and a global ambassador for Keep A Child Alive, which is a partner of the ONE Campaign. Keep a Child Alive will honor Bono, Rock Star and Activist/Campaigner for Africa; Dr. Pasquine Ogunsanya, Medical Director of Alive Medical Services, Uganda; and Nick Reding, Founder & Executive Director of Sponsored Arts For Education (S.A.F.E.), Kenya, at the event.

In its first 24 hours, the ONE Campus Challenge (the Challenge) signed up new members of the ONE Campaign on more than 1,250 college campuses across the United States. The Challenge is the ONE Campaign’s first initiative to provide America’s college students with the tools they need to lead the fight against global disease and extreme poverty. Students can join the ONE Campus Challenge by texting their school’s keyword to “62523”. Signups are tabulated on ONE.org/campus daily so students can track their school’s progress. Students may also sign up at ONE.org/campus. Nearly 14,000 new student members of the ONE Campaign have signed up since the Challenge was launched.

“The goal of the ONE Campus Challenge is to recruit 100,000 new ONE members on 1,000 college campuses nationwide and create widespread awareness of global diseases and extreme poverty. The overwhelming enthusiasm that American students are showing for the Challenge in the very short time since it was launched demonstrates that this generation is looking for a way to distinguish itself,” said Kimberly Cadena, the ONE Campaign’s spokesperson.

The Challenge was launched on September 29 by Chris Rock and Bono at a special youth activism event hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative at the Apollo Theater in New York City. President of Hofstra University’s ONE Chapter Kaytee Lozier is included in MTV’s coverage of the event, which airs tonight at 8pm EST on MTV. Lozier spoke with MTV News Correspondent Sway Calloway about the Challenge and encouraged students across the U.S. to get involved.

The ONE Campus Challenge

ONE is developing chapters on campus, encouraging student groups to hold regular meetings, respond to calls to action, participate in activities on campus to raise awareness about ONE and create their own opportunities on-campus and beyond to expand ONE’s effectiveness.

ONE is tracking schools’ progress, rewarding them for reaching milestones as the Challenge progresses, stoking the competition and encouraging participation. To keep students motivated, campuses will receive prizes for reaching organizing milestones. The campus with the most points overall will have the opportunity to host a special performance on their campus in April 2008.

A Generation’s Great Accomplishment

The Challenge isn’t a call to students to be better poverty fighters than their rival school. It is the challenge to a generation that has the power to end extreme poverty. In the next generation we can end malaria. We can give all children the chance to attend school. Students are part of the generation that can feed the starving. When history books record this generation’s greatest accomplishments, these can be among them.

KEEP A CHILD ALIVE is an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. With 28 million already dead, the disease continues, wiping out whole societies, threatening economic infrastructure and devastating family structure. Keep A Child Alive is dedicated to providing lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and India by directly engaging the public in the fight against AIDS.

There are currently 13 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone. Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment has transformed the lives of people with AIDS in the West, returning them from sickness to health. However, few Africans with AIDS have access to these lifesaving drugs. For more information, please visit: keepachildalive.org.