The deadline for entering the contest has passed, and the results are in - check out the winning entry!
With total student debt in this country totaling over $440 billion, and the average student today graduating with debt almost three and a half times that of graduates a decade ago, the Campaign for College Affordability gave students and recent graduates the chance to highlight the crisis in student aid – and at the same time turn their debt into cash.
The Campaign for College Affordability hosted the College Affordability Essay Contest. The contest was open to current students, undergraduate or graduate, and former students with at least $2,500 in outstanding educational debt who wrote and placed an essay, reported article, opinion piece, or multimedia work on the topic of college affordability in a college, local or national publication – print or web. The winner, as determined by our panel of judges, will be awarded a $2,500 scholarship to alleviate his student debt burden. Check out some of the great entries we have received!
The judges chose one winner from the top five entries, which were selected by the organizations that make up the Campaign for College Affordability. Essays were be judged for their content, visibility, and potential impact.
The $2,500 scholarship prize was won by Campus Progress for its innovative Debt Hits Hard videos in Huffington Post’s Contagious Festival.
Tamara Draut is the author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead and is the Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a public policy center based in New York City. Tamara's work has been covered extensively by dozens of newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and she has appeared on the Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and Fox News. In her role at Demos, Tamara oversees the research, policy and advocacy work on economic security issues. Tamara holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.S.J. from Ohio University.
Anya Kamenetz is a Freelance Journalist, Author, and Blogger. She is a journalistic fellow of the nonprofit Freelancers Union and a contributing writer for Fast Company magazine. In 2004, the Village Voice nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for the series "Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young." Generation Debt is also the title of her first book, and she writes a biweekly "Finance Expert" column of the same name for Yahoo! Finance. She writes about the startling range of economic upheavals facing people in their 20s and 30s. Anya has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other publications on generational economics and politics.
Gabriel Pendas is the President of the United States Student Association, which represents millions of students and works to expand access to education at the federal, state, and campus level. Previously, Pendas served as the Student Senate President at the Florida State University and Chair of the Senate Leadership Committee for the Florida Student Association. He also helped found the Coalition for Active Voter Education, which increased student voting by 97%. After the death of a student in a boot camp for juvenile offenders, Pendas helped lead a sit-in at the Governor's office that led to significant reforms in Florida's juvenile justice system.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation. She is the co-editor of Taking Back America – And Taking Down The Radical Right (NationBooks, 2004), and her book, Ideas Matter: A Progressive Politics for a new Century will be published in June. She is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN and ABC. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Her weblog for thenation.com is "Editor's Cut." She is a graduate of Princeton University, and she lives in New York City with her husband and teenage daughter.
Erica Williams is the Issue Campaigns Manager for Campus Progress where she develops and implements strategies to advance the progressive student agendas in national issue campaigns such as college cost, affirmative action, and many others. Previously, Erica served as a field associate at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights where she worked to galvanize grassroots support in over 45 states for effective civil and human rights legislation at the federal level, including the successful reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. She has also worked on securing voting representation for the District of Columbia and pursuing effective federal hate crimes legislation.
Entries
The Campaign for College Affordability wants to thank everyone who participated in the contest. We have received over four hundred great entries, and feel like the contest has helped raise awareness about student debt and college access. It was a difficult decision for our panel of judges, but the results are in.
The winner is…
When College Ends, So Does Activism
by Adam Doster
In These Times
Nelson had to balance her conscience with her checkbook. Paying for college was her responsibility. “My parents just didn’t have money and I didn’t want to ask them for it,” she says, “so everything that I had, I had to pay for basically by myself.” In April, she graduated with almost $30,000 in student loans. So she’s keeping her job at the library at night while searching during the day for work in progressive politics, which she knows won’t pay enough to cover both her cost of living and her current debt. {Read More}
Honorable Mentions…
Emptying Nest Egg, Not the Nests
by Angel Jennings
The New York Times
In contrast to previous generations, when young people generally took control of their finances — and their lives — after graduating from college, more parents are supporting their offspring well into adulthood. {Read More}
Not on Lamar Smith's Watch
by Zack Hall
The Daily Texan
Rep. Lamar Smith didn't bother showing up to vote in favor of student financial relief last weekend, but he voted for the Patent Reform Act only eight minutes earlier. {Read More}
Student Debt Limits Who We Become
by Ken Ilgunas
Buffalo News
I am 24, live with my parents, can't find work and am floundering in a sea of debt five figures high. I think of myself as ambitious, independent and hardworking. Now I'm dependent, unemployed and sleeping under the same Super Mario ceiling fan that I did when I was 7. {Read More}
Student Debt: Pay Attention Now, or Pay the Price Later
by Laura Mandanas
Reporter
"I went into RIT believing that no matter what it cost, I would find a way. And about two and half years into that I realized that that really wasn't going to cut it." These are the words of Stephanie Collins, an RIT student who last year faced one of most students' worst nightmares: dropping out of school. Although it sounds like a drastic measure to take, the situation which led to it may not be quite as unique or different from your own as you might like to think. {Read More}
Other Notable Entries…
National Crisis in Student Debt
by Taylon Terrell
The Meter
The Federal government has been supplying programs with money for higher education for 60 years, yet today a college education is more unaffordable than ever, resulting in higher debt. {Read More}
Our Corrupted Education Costs
by Pia Jensen
Lake County News
We need effective help from our representatives if we hope to make a better life for ourselves after graduation. Students have a tough financial time while in college; their reward upon graduation should be the ability to afford life. {Read More}
Student Debt: the Plague of the Millennial Generation
by Jessica Smith
Mormon Momma
Some students work multiple jobs just to pay tuition, not to mention basic living costs. Other students take out loans for tens of thousands of dollars, hoping that, somehow, they can pay them off after graduation with an entry-level jobÉ What are the non-loan options, and why are these options failing our students? Let's find out. {Read More}
Surviving Student Loans
by John Williamson
The Whitworthian
Like a gathering storm cloud gradually rolling in from the distant horizon, college debt looms over the graduating senior. To avoid thinking about debt never makes the reality go away. USA Today reported the average graduating college senior in 2006 had $19,000 of debt. What have we gotten ourselves into? {Read More}
Want to see the contest rules? Click here.
