TOMBALL, Texas - The $10,000 prize isn’t the only large sum of money the LSC-Tomball Up To Us Campus Competition team is thinking about. Another large amount – $21 trillion – also weighs on the members’ minds. That’s the amount of our nation’s long-term debt. Coming up with clever ways to raise awareness about the deficit could help the student team pocket the $10K.
“Teams are judged on the success of their campaign which include activities, events and how many pledges they can sign up during the campaign,” said Jonathan Andis, a third year LSC-Tomball student and captain of this year’s Up To Us Campus Competition team. “We compete against all colleges, large and small, four-year and two-year, on everything except the pledge totals, which are based on college size.”
The annual Up To Us Campus Competition is a national competition designed to raise awareness and engage young adults with the fiscal challenges facing our nation and the potential impact on their future. Teams are judged on a variety of criteria including the creativity, vision and success of the activities that are part of an overall campaign. In addition to gaining insight into fiscal policy matters, the competition helps team members build critical skills in leadership, strategy development, and community engagement.
“Our LSC-Tomball team did very well in the overall judging during last year’s competition,” said Dr. Virginia Haysley, professor of Political Science and faculty sponsor of the team. “And we ranked very high in our division for collecting pledges.
“The pledges, signed by students and the greater community, are added to an Up to Us electronic petition stating that the debt is our problem collectively, and we need to seek a solution,” she said, adding, “Up to Us then sends the pledges to Congress.”
The competition kicks-off on November 8 with a nation-wide event, My Two Cents Day, a student-led day of open-forums and discussions intended to engage, inform and inspire action.
“It’s important that taxpayers, voters, students, everyone, grasp the size of the deficit and how it affects us all,” said Andis, whose goal is to sign up at least 300 pledges during the team’s campaign activities which begins with a booth at the upcoming Spooktacular, an on-campus Halloween Party on October 23.
“We want to hear from students throughout the campaign; we’re really want to encourage them to speak out about their views on U.S. fiscal policy,” said Andis, adding emphatically, “Even if someone sends me an email at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, I would love it!”
Coming later in the semester is what’s known as the “wild card” event, an activity that challenges each team’s creative ability to stage an event that’s informative, interactive, and focuses attention on the issues that surround the national debt. Andis said his team was still working on an idea for this year’s wild card event. Last year’s team, which Andis also helped lead, hosted a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire themed game show event, where participants answered national deficit related questions.
Andis recalled with delight the excitement that ran through the crowd when members from the audience shouted out help and encouragement to a contestant struggling to pick the correct multiple choice answer to the last question. Contestants pocketed gift cards ranging from $25 to $50 based on the number of correctly answered questions.
The Up To Us organization provides each team with the necessary funding to execute their campaign and teams that successfully complete them are eligible for various prizes. The winning team is awarded $10,000 and the core members receive an expense-paid trip to a national conference where their achievements are formally announced and recognized. The top-performing runner-up teams also receive cash prizes.
Andis says that finding creative ways to raise awareness of the national debt is what makes the semester-long effort interesting and fun. The ultimate goal, though, is to help bring down the $21 trillion national debt, and is why he and his teammates are eager to work on it.
Last year’s Up to Us Campus Competition fielded more than 100 teams, held close to 500 events and engaged more than 56,000 students through creative, interactive and informative events nationwide. Since the annual competition began in 2012 over 650 campus teams have participated and so far this year, 125 teams from across the country have signed up.
The Up to Us organization wants policymakers to know that young Americans are committed to addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges. Over the last six years, Up to Us has nurtured a movement of student leaders who’ve engaged and informed their peers about the fiscal future of the nation. Created in partnership with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and Net Impact, Up to Us provides an opportunity for students to participate in an effort to raise awareness and engagement on America’s fiscal challenges.
Lone Star College-Tomball is located at 30555 Tomball Parkway, at the intersection of SH 249 and Zion Road. For more information about the college, call 281.351.3300 or visit LoneStar.edu/Tomball.
Lone Star College offers high-quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 99,000 students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of nearly $3 billion. LSC consists of six colleges, eight centers, two university centers, Lone Star Corporate College and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.