On any given day, college students can choose from hundreds of activities. This past year, tens of thousands of them got involved in a nationwide campus competition called Up to Us and spent their time raising awareness about our national debt.
As a result of the hard-working, innovative teams that participated, Up to Us had an amazingly successful second year. As program manager for Up to Us, I knew it was important to capture basic stats, like how many students participated in activities on campus. However, what made these campaigns so inspiring was their creativity. To give a bit more context about what the students achieved, we created an infographic to reflect not only the standard metrics, but also some of the non-traditional activities that make this competition so unique. You can view the full infographic here, and take a look at five fun facts from the campaigns below:
1 Inflatable Elephant: Representing the elephant in the room – how huge the national debt is – this display attracted people to the Tufts University table.
13 selfies with Clinton: Students from the winning teams attended CGI U and applied their can-do attitude to get their selfies on with President Clinton.
82 debt-related pick up lines: Rice University got fiscally romantic this Valentine’s Day by hosting a debt-themed pick-up line competition. 56 of the lines then were plastered around campus, including my personal favorite: “Baby, are you Social Security benefits? Because I would spend all my money to keep you around.”
1,000 Flags + 1 Uncle Sam: California State University, Fullerton took tabling to another level and raised awareness about the national debt on campus with costumes and public art.
5,000 cardboard boxes: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville created the world’s largest box fort, with each box representing $3.5 billion of debt. Who said sustainability and debt can’t go hand in hand?
Do you have what it takes to lead a creative campaign about our nation’s debt on your campus? Are you up for a challenge and a fun time? Sign up to find out when next year’s Up to Us launches!
