Last week Western Kentucky University celebrated winning the Campus Challenge in grand style with concert featuring Army of Me, Gorgie James, and Martin Royal.

I’ve uploaded a couple of pictures from the show and you can find more in the Flickr pool.

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.

We got a great picture this week from Western Kentucky, but it comes with an even better story:

“Banding and signing up the head of the WKU dining services and his entourage. Roy Biggers is the man who attempted to shut down our operation outside of our dining hall to spread the awareness of hunger; now he is a part of our campaign. “

Great work!  Taking a defeat and turning it right around into a victory like that is exactly the type of effort it is going to take to win in the final round of 10.

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?

Not only did they just win the weekly challenge, it looks like Western Kentucky University recruited 327 people in the last week.  That means that in the last two weeks they have accounted for a total of 601 new ONE members.  That’s amazing.

The rest of the top ten better watch their backs. With schools like Western Kentucky surging like this folks places like Brandeis (15 recruits this week) and Wilmington (only 3 new people this week) no one’s place in the top ten is secure.

Western Kentucky University got out and got public in a big way this weekend to win last week’s challenge: off campus outreach.  They did everything from tabling at a movie theater to simply banding people at cafes and coffee shops.

It can be intimidating to get out into the community and talk to people about ONE, but it can also be highly effective. Congratulations to Western Kentucky and all the other schools (like College of Charleston and Sacred Heart) that got off campus this last week and engaged even more people in the fight against poverty.

Last week was a close competition for who could bring in the most new recruits, and this week was anything but.  Western Kentucky ran away with it, bringing in 274 new members.  Second place goes to Saint Anselm with a distant - though impressive for one week - 107.

We’ve rest the counter, so get recruiting this week and see if you can score 10,000 points for you school next Monday.