We gave each school $1,000 and three weeks to come up with something amazing, and they’ve outdone themselves. We’ve got everything from outreach to other schools to incredible on-campus displays to hundreds and even thousands of new sign-ups.
Your votes will count for 40% of the total scores, with our judging panel’s evaluations making up the other 60%. You can only vote once per email address, and we will be watching very closely for suspicious activity so don’t try to game the system.
So what should you be looking for while deciding how to cast your vote? Think about:
- Scope: was the project ambitious enough? Too ambitious? Were there a variety of activities but not so many that the message was diluted?
- Relevance: did the project conform to ONE’s mission and relate to extreme global poverty, infectious diseases and related issues?
- Level of Engagement: how deep did this project delve into ONE’s issues?
- Impact: how did the community respond to the actions? How many people were reached? Was there an advocacy effort, and was it successful?
- Creativity: did the chapter use creative methods and step “outside the box” to reach out to new members and raise awareness about ONE?
Sacred Heart University’s Mike Fazzino, the #4 ranked anti-poverty student advocate in the country, made the Foreign Affairs budget the focus of his school’s Top 10 project for the ONE Campus Challenge. Now he wants you to know why this budget is critical – and what you can do about it. –Emily Stivers
ONE members at Sacred Heart are used to hearing about budgeting. From balancing our own ONE Campus Challenge club’s stipend to weekly updates on SHU’s spending, we recognize the importance of proper finances. That’s why when we saw the opportunity to have our impact on the International Affairs portion of the FY2010 budget (The 150 Account), we jumped at it.
ONE has always taught us that our voices are powerful – which is why we incorporated this sort of lobbying into our final project. We couldn’t bear to see the $4 billion cut from the budget, so we stood behind the Kerry-Lugar amendment and started gaining support for it. The added incentive of a free ONE band for signing (along with the obvious fact we’re saving lives around the world) was enough to garner over 300 signatures on our petitions to Senators Lieberman and Dodd. ONE members at SHU even changed their Facebook, Twitter, and AIM status messages to reflect info on how to contact their local Senators through the Capitol switchboard.
You can join us to strengthen our impact. Please call your senators right now and ask them to vote for the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the cuts to the budget and keep America’s promise to the developing world, helping end global poverty and preventable diseases!
The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Senator Kent Conrad, wants to cut $4 billion from the president’s International Affairs Budget—the part of the budget funding almost all of our anti-poverty work, from fighting global AIDS to making sure the hunger crisis doesn’t turn into a starvation crisis.
This is an outrage we don’t have to stand for. A bipartisan amendment now in the Senate would restore the full $4 billion to the president’s International Affairs budget, and it’s going to be voted on as soon as Wednesday. Your voice, as a constituent and a ONE member, is the most powerful force there is in support of this amendment.
Please call your senators right now and ask them to vote for the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the cuts to the budget and keep America’s promise to the developing world, helping end global poverty and preventable diseases.
Check back on the ONE Blog for further news and analysis about this extremely disheartening development—and our work to make sure stop this cut.
This morning, Maisie compiled a package with all 10 of the top schools’ projects and sent it to our official OCC judging panel. We’ll be evaluating the projects for Scope, Relevance, Level of Engagement, Impact, and Creativity. I’ve only had a chance to skim the text and watch the videos, but from what I have seen….you all have outdone yourselves this time. Major kudos to all the Top 10 for their exceptional hard work.
Tomorrow – probably later in the day – we’ll open the projects up for online voting, which will count for 40% of each school’s total score. My challenge is going to be to format your projects for presentation on the website, and make sure they’re going to represent your hard work the way you deserve. If you get a question from Maisie or me (or both), try to get back to us ASAP – you’re not in trouble, we’re just trying to make sure your project looks good (and is legal!) on our website.
Let us know if you have any questions…and be sure to give your networks a heads’ up about the online voting starting Tuesday night. You don’t have to be a student to vote, just a ONE member.
Hey students! Be sure to spend some time exploring the new ONE website. We’ve added tons of awesome resources for you, including issue research and tips for your advocacy and event-planning efforts. We hope you love it…and let us know if there’s anything you don’t love!
A lot of time and energy has gone into redesigning and revamping ONE.org. Suffice it to say, it was no small task. The new website, we hope, will allow us to connect with you faster, easier, and more frequently to bring you the latest campaigns, actions, policy analysis, and updates in a format that is both fresh and easy to use.
In addition to the redesign, ONE.org will also function a bit differently with new features and content. Below is a sample of what you’ll find on the new site. We’ll be adding new features and content in coming days. Be sure to check back on the ONE Blog for more updates:
Homepage—We’ve drastically redesigned the homepage to feature more diverse, interesting, and up-to-date content. You can use the carousel to navigate through ONE’s current campaigns, initiatives, policy analysis, and other hot topics. We’ll also use this space to periodically draw special attention to various featured series.
Act Now—This will be your go-to spot to take action on any and all of ONE’s campaigns and initiatives. With step-by-step instructions on how to contact your elected officials and take action in your community, Act Now will be an awesome reference guide for all ONE Members.
Issues—Here is where we’ll present the issues ONE advocates—from Trade to Agriculture, Education and Disease. Each issue will have its own page outlining the challenges and opportunities presented, along with quick facts and an up-to-the-minute feed of all relevant blog posts and other news. These are designed for policy novice and expert alike.
Policy News—This will serve as a live feed of breaking news and policy analysis produced by our renowned policy team. For those seeking to learn more about what’s going on in the world in the fight to end extreme poverty, you’ll want to bookmark this page.
ONE Blog—Long a staple of ONE.org, the ONE Blog will become a more integral part of the website, integrated seamlessly into various policy and issues sections to bring readers a live feed of what’s going on in the world of global development. With regular contributions from ONE staff, members, and partners, the ONE Blog will be an invaluable tool in staying connected with one another in the fight against extreme poverty.
This is just the beginning—over the coming days, weeks, and months we’ll be unveiling new features and content. Like ONE itself, our website is only as strong as the members and volunteers who use it. Your feedback is always welcomed. Thanks for visiting ONE.org!
ONE’s DC headquarters got a surprise visit today from Tomas Moreno of Wofford College in South Carolina. Tomas was in town for an OXFAM lobby day — and some top-secret work on Wofford’s Top 10 project that he was not at liberty to discuss (but was visibly excited about!).
While he was here, Tomas got a sneak-peek at some top-secret ONE projects, and got to be the first non-staff person to check out the new ONE website (our OCC pages will remain unchanged, but the rest of the ONE site is about to undergo a massive overhaul). He even found a problem on the new site that the rest of us had missed! Tomas also got a tour of the office, met and talked with staff from different departments, and got tips on his final project.
In addition to leading the #9-ranked OCC school in the country, Tomas is also the #3 ranked individual student with nearly 50,000 points racked up over the course of the year. He told me a little about what he’s thinking for his Africa Trip application and I can tell you, he is going to set the bar pretty high. Hopefully the other 19 students will bring their “A” games as well!
This Sunday, March 29, at midnight PST is the last minute you can submit your Top 10 project for our consideration. We don’t have much time to get these projects up on the website to open it up for online voting by Tuesday, so unfortunately we can’t accept late projects.
All the Top 10 schools have been assigned a ONE staff contact to answer questions and help out. If you can get your project done before Sunday, you might want to think about having your staffer look it over and give you some feedback, so you can correct any potential problems before the final submit.
To submit your project, just email Maisie the form we provided with links to any videos, websites, photos etc. you want to include for consideration. Remember to keep your videos within the time limits — if your video is too long, you’ll only be hurting your own case, because the online voters (and our ONE staff judges) might not watch the whole thing.
We’re really excited to see your finished projects!
As we’ve been blogging about recently leaders from 20 of the world’s largest economies are gathering in London for the G20 Summit in a little over a week—the most important talks to date on rebuilding the global economy. For the 53 million people teetering on the edge, this is a make-or-break moment during which President Obama’s influence upon other world leaders could make all the difference.
Please sign our petition asking President Obama to provide leadership for the G20 by including the poorest nations in their solutions to the financial crisis.
President Obama,
Please advocate for the resources, reform, and regulation that developing countries need to weather the financial crisis.
ONE is advocating a specific focus on the 3 R’s—resources, reform, and regulation—to bring needed recovery in the poorest nations on Earth. Please sign our petition asking President Obama to urge other G20 leaders to include developing nations in their solutions to financial crisis.
Pongezi (that’s Swahili for Congrats!) to the 20 students eligible to apply for OCC’s Trip to Kenya in late July or early August of this summer!
These students have worked really hard (understatement of the century) to get to this point, and they’ve earned a huge pat on the back for all they’ve done to advance ONE on their campuses and in their communities.
But we’re only taking 5 to Africa – specifically, to Kenya, this summer, for about a week. The dates aren’t final yet, but we’re looking at July or August.
These 20 will submit projects and applications to earn their spot on the trip. And we’re expecting big things! The project theme is “How will U bring Africa to the OCC?” and the Top 20 can present their program plan in the form of song, video, photo journal, written work, or anything that speaks to their unique talents. They’ve all received guidelines on their submissions already. Projects will pass under the scrutinizing eyes of not one, but TWO separate judging panels to determine the 5 going to Africa.
1 Nick Stevens, Webster University
2 Justin Kralemann, Baylor University
3 Tomas Moreno, Wofford College
4 Mike Fazzino, Sacred Heart University
5 Andrea Netti, Southern Methodist University
6 Hassan Barzani, University of Texas at San Antonio
7 Rachel Berman-Vaporis, Brandeis University
8 Kelly Wynveen, Clark University
9 Mike Weidman, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
10 Jessica Beckner, Indiana University
11 Steven Thai, Luther College
12 Stephanie Parrish, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
13 Eric Mayle, Missouri State University
14 Bryant Shannon, University of Florida
15 Audrey Ruark, Kennesaw State University
16 Erin Burke, Sacred Heart University
17 Harpreet Kaur, Saint John’s University, Jamaica New York
18 Christie Fleming Franciscan, University of Steubenville
19 Caitlin Harrowby, Maui Community College
20 Genevieve Gearity, Emerson College
We’ll also have 3 alternates that will submit projects as if they were in the Top 20. These students will be considered in the event that anyone in the Top 20 is unable to complete the project or unable to go on the trip to Africa. So, pongezi separately to:
21 Melissa Boles, Washington State University – Vancouver
22 Olivia Durning, Sacred Heart University
23 Victoria Roman, George Washington University
Good luck to all our semifinalists! We can’t wait to see your projects.
When I first transferred to the University of Texas at San Antonio in August 2008, from Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, I became involved with several organizations on campus. I was doing my everyday routine of going to class and heading back to the dorms until one day I was thinking of what type of legacy I could leave behind when I graduate as a “UTSA Roadrunner.”
On Facebook I saw a link to the ONE Campus Challenge. When I first saw the website, I notice that UTSA was part of the program. Then I notice that UTSA did not have a campus leader, so I decided to step up and represent my university. Next, I sent an email to the regional organizer from Texas, Justin Kralemann, saying that I wanted to become “The UTSA ONE President.”
Even though we had a late start this year, our school has accomplished so much. UTSA made the cut for the 2009 Power 100 Summit for the first time ever, and I got an invitation for an awesome weekend in Washington D.C.
Since the trip in D.C., our school has been moving up rapidly in the standings and hopefully at year’s end we will become a Top 20 institution. ONE in a way is all about fun and games, but on the other hand it is about making a difference in the world in not only local communities, but in schools across the country.
Also, by being part of ONE, anyone can gain so many opportunities during and after college to build connections through many non-profit organizations. These possible opportunities are from Oxfam, Unicef, Shoes of Africa, the Feed Program, Jubilee USA and the United Nations. Finally, by seeing ONE partner up with so many groups, UTSA and other schools nationwide have valuable information needed to succeed in future seasons of Campus Challenge.
-Hassan Barzani, University of Texas at San Antonio
This entry is part of a series of student submissions on “What I Learned From OCC This Year.” Click here for more info.
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a friendly competition to determine which university's student body has the most effective global poverty-fighting campaign. The site is operated by ONE staff, Campus Outreach Ambassadors (COAs), and Campus Leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
The Top 10 schools have logged countless hours on their projects, and now it’s your turn to be the judge. 
TAGS: Top 10, Uncategorized