All of the schools put together some amazing final projects, but after counting all the legitimate votes, and calculating the judges’ scores, Western Kentucky emerged as our winner.The final vote total was:

Each of the judges ranked the projects from 1-10 (1 being the best), so a smaller sum total correlates to a better ranking. Their cumulative scores were:

Additionally, here is what the judges had to say about the projects (in no particular order):

Hofstra did a good job showing the struggles 1 billion people face on a daily basis around the world. Oftentimes it is easier for people to be impacted by a visual rather than a statistic - Great job showing everything from living conditions to limited food resources.

Western Kentucky showed hustle and energy and engaged the entire community which was impressive. Western Kentucky was savvy and the fact that they were able to get, for example, 160 people to send letters in support of the Education For All Act, showed a lot of tangible advocacy.

Kansas State did a great job reaching out to local media to spread more awareness.

The vigil was very powerful visual.

Campbellsville did a great job participating in a variety events that would reach different audiences. It is amazing how many activities you were able to host and be a part of. I hope the ONE group will continue to be involved in the campus and Campbellsville communities.

The fact that the UNLV students understood it was important both to praise a Senator supporting them and to push a Senator who was not was good, smart lobbying. Also, we can’t beat poverty on our own, and you did the best job of pulling other groups into the fight against poverty and got them to use their specific skills and interests to further the cause.

Brandeis - I loved the theme. The catchy theme was a great way to get people’s attention.

GWU did a great job demonstrating how cheap medications are for treatable diseases, it is important for people to understand something tangible like the cost of a pill. The petition delivery was the type of stunt that gets attention and sticks in people’s memories. Grade A advocacy right there.

Princeton did an amazing job inundating the campus with ONE materials the night before your campus event. I am glad you were able to make students comfortable enough to call their congressional members.

Wilmington - Engaging the local community is crucial. Hopefully you can start to build a sustainable group that bridges the campus and the community.

SHU did a great job with the playground and it was inspiring how they all were able to connect the local community to the greater global problem.

You know what is ridiculous? The complete lack of confidence in the amazing projects ALL of the top 10 schools did. I know the vast majority of these schools don’t even *want* the concert - that all came secondary to actually making a difference. It’s not about getting a free musical performance - it’s about making a difference in the world. Everyone needs to take a step back from voting, stop pointing fingers, and realize that *this* is how we got into the situation our world is in to begin with.

Those involved with ONE stand for eliminating extreme poverty and disease worldwide. Why don’t we all look and see what POSITIVE things we can say about the schools in the top ten? Try not to compliment your own school - we already know that YOU love their project.

For one, I LOVED George Washington’s use of the “Fresh African Water” in their final video submission. It was awesome - definitly got the message across. Western Kentucky’s breakdown of all the Millennium Development Goals was incredible as well - super effective. Hofstra is helping to educate children in Kenya - I’d say that’s a worthy cause. Campellsville, Kansas State, and Brandeis all had incredible awareness events as well. Wilmington College’s aspects of planning for their project in itself is daunting.

Post something here so long as you’ve got a positive thing to say. Anyone think of a project that no one did? Anything super creative? Let’s keep it going with some positive reinforcement here…

After almost 5 months of open competition, we’re now narrowing the competition down to the top ten schools:

1. Sacred Heart University
2. University of Nevada, Las Vegas
3. Brandeis University
4. Western Kentucky University
5. Princeton University
6. Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
7. Kansas State University
8. George Washington University
9. Hofstra University
10. Campbellsville University

Each school will receive a $1,000 grant to create their own poverty advocacy program.

Thank you all for waiting patiently while we processed points. We know that the leader board might shift around a little, but at the point that we cut off the competition (Monday) these were the schools that made the cut for the final 10.

This doesn’t mean that the competition is over for everyone else. If you didn’t make the top ten, you can still create you very own advocacy project and submit it for a chance at a “wild card” spot. In late March when we all vote for the final winner, we’ll include the wild card entry in with the top 10 schools for voting.

Though the competition of the Campus Challenge is narrowing, the larger competition against extreme poverty is far from over. We’ve got lots of work to do, and it is crucial that we all continue to do the work we have done during the campus challenge, even if the fun and games are coming to a close.

A handful of schools went all out in a final recruitment drive help clench a spot in the top ten. When I looked up the numbers I was blown away by the lengths the top 4 recruiters went in the final week.

Western Kentucky – 483
Brandeis – 256
Kansas State – 129
Princeton – 91

Normally you would think that recruiting over 250 people in a single week would be good enough to win the weekly recruitment challenge, but not so.  Western Kentucky is on fire, and they have been for about a month now. The question is: can they keep it up long enough to win it all?

When we had our all OCC conference call last week we issued a special challenge to everyone on the call: make a video telling us why you fight extreme poverty with ONE.  Each entry was worth 20,000 points, and the winner - Kansas State - is getting 40,000 points. Check it out.

Kansas State - quietly lurking the teens for a long time now - is about to launch themselves into the top ten with a great educational Power Point detailing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the ONE’s efforts of fight global poverty. The presentation will net them 50,000 points as the winning entry into last week’s weekly challenge.

We’ve uploaded the presentation so you can check it out an use it on your campus.

All of the other presentations were pretty good, and for spreading awareness on their campuses we gave each school that submitted an educational project 1,000 points.