ONE Campus Challenge Puts Students at Center of Poverty-Fighting Movement

Today, ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History launched the ONE Campus Challenge, an initiative to provide America's college students with the tools they need to lead the fight against global disease and extreme poverty. The ONE Campus Challenge was unveiled on Saturday night by Bono and Chris Rock at a special Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and MTV forum on youth activism.

The forum focused on ways young people can give back to their communities here in the United States and make a difference in the lives of people living in the poorest places on the planet. The ONE Campus Challenge (the Challenge) is a call to a generation to take the lead in the fight against poverty. The Challenge will provide students with everything they need to bring their friends into the movement and motivate them to remain engaged.

"The trip I took to Africa with my family was an incredible, yet depressing journey. We were on the world's most beautiful continent, only to face the somber fact that tens of thousands of children die each day from diseases easily prevented and treated in other countries. In America, we have a glass of water without even thinking about it. In some places in Africa, a glass of water will kill you," said Chris Rock. "It's time to get off of our couches, put down the video games, stop sitting around, and do something more to help. That's what ONE is all about. And that's what people will learn through the ONE Campus Challenge."

"The goal of the ONE Campus Challenge is to recruit 100,000 new ONE members on 1,000 college campuses nationwide and create widespread awareness of global diseases and extreme poverty. ONE's use of cutting-edge Internet- based technologies gives members an unprecedented level of organization and involvement. Already, ONE has over 115,000 'friends' on MySpace and more than 62,000 contacts for the ONE cause on Facebook," said Kimberly Cadena, the ONE Campaign's spokesperson.

"ONE will develop chapters on campus, encouraging student groups to hold regular meetings, respond to calls to action, participate in activities on campus to raise awareness about ONE and create their own opportunities on- campus and beyond to expand ONE's effectiveness. Students may choose from more than 100 ways to earn points for their campus throughout the Challenge's three phases. Each phase will be marked by unique events, opportunities and tasks," explained Erin Eagan, ONE Campaign Student Outreach Coordinator.

During the Challenge, students will have unique opportunities they've never been offered before. For example, phase two of the Challenge will last approximately two months and kick-off with the Power 100 Summit, an invitation-only summit in Washington, D.C., for selected activists and the leaders of the top 100 campuses. The Power 100 Summit is the opportunity for leading campus ONE chapters to come together and be immersed in ONE goals and ideals and hear from well-known speakers, activists and political leaders. The summit will energize top-chapter leadership and create lifelong ONE activists. At the conclusion of the summit, all ONE chapters will be challenged with new milestones to achieve during phase two of the Challenge.

A Generation's Great Accomplishment

The Challenge isn't a call to students to be better poverty fighters than their rival school. It is the challenge to a generation that has the power to end extreme poverty. In the next generation we can end malaria. We can give all children the chance to attend school. Students are part of the generation that can feed the starving. When history books record this generation's greatest accomplishments, these can be among them.

In order to accomplish these goals and save millions of lives, students have to be more than hundreds of thousands of students taking action against poverty as individuals; they have to be ONE. ONE voice will be so loud that every elected official in America will hear us when young Americans all across the nation are crying out: "History is waiting for America to be great again. The time to act is now."

There are a billion reasons to get involved, the most important of which is that students' efforts will save lives. Lots of lives. The lives of millions of people, and will help improve the lives of billions of people around the world. Besides the satisfaction of doing the right thing, ONE student members will also get something out of it. They'll get to meet people. They'll get to participate in fun events and receive prizes. They'll get to tell their kids one day, or the guy next to them in the nursing home, that they played a role in their generation's greatest accomplishments.

The Race

Students can join the ONE Campus Challenge by texting their school's keyword to "62523". Signups will be tabulated on ONE.org/campus daily so students can track their school's progress. Students may also sign up at ONE.org/campus.

In addition to sending messages and updates to students on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other online communities, ONE will use its "Textual Intercourse" program to send ONE actions, key updates and breaking news via text message to engage students in ONE's up-to-the-minute work to influence America's leaders in Washington, D.C. ONE will track campuses leading the Challenge on ONE.org and on The ONE Blog and encourage students to submit pictures and videos showcasing their school's efforts.

The Challenge piggybacks on major campus events for media as well. For example, the college football bowl games and small schools' playoffs, as well as the NCAA and NIT basketball tournaments, give students a unique chance to showcase the Challenge. ONE will have a visible presence at these games, while working with media outlets covering these competitions to showcase the Challenge between schools as well.

To fan the flames at the hot campuses and inject energy into campuses that are lagging, ONE will get creative.

Celebrity and other high-profile supporters will send personal challenges to key students on campus, challenging them to produce 1,000 new ONE members and providing a prize for completion of this personal challenge. Throughout the Challenge, celebrity conference calls with grassroots supporters, emails, online organizing and fresh content at ONE.org will keep students interested and active.

No losers and ONE big winner

ONE will track schools' progress, rewarding them for reaching milestones as the Challenge progresses, stoking the competition and encouraging participation. To keep students motivated, campuses will receive prizes for reaching organizing milestones. The campus with the most points overall will have the opportunity to host a special performance on their campus.

Why now?

At every point of epic change in American history, young Americans played a pivotal role. Students have in some part instigated, participated in and fueled every great movement in our nation's history. In the movement to abolish slavery, students led. At the forefront of the Women's Suffrage movement, students were there. At every step of the Civil Rights Movement, students boldly led the charge. Now, students are already leading the charge of the next great movement, the fight against poverty. The ONE Campus Challenge will provide the tools and resources to student leaders to help them take their movement to the next level.

Students are in the center of the perfect storm. Never before have America's citizens had such a steady stream of information from around the world; we know what's wrong and thanks to technological advances and aid reform, we have the means to tackle big challenges. Young Americans have always been some of the bravest among us. They see injustice and suffering and they are compelled to act. They understand that as a great nation, America has the ability and responsibility to help those around the globe who need a helping hand the most.

Why students?

Because of their online networks, students have the ability to effectively organize on campus, taking their online organizing offline, to influence leaders in their communities and states. Today's students are politically savvy, mobilizing to bring attention to the crisis in Darfur, stop human rights abuses abroad and increase environmental protections; and politicians pay attention.

Students get America's elected leaders to pay attention. Students are loud. Students can break through the clutter. Students are informed and have access to important, influential figures, including speakers visiting campus, campus administrators, school alumni and local elected officials. Students' creative and tech-savvy approach to getting attention is crucial for ONE to be heard by America's leaders. Finally, students are already organizing and taking action, all ONE needs to do is throw some fuel on the fire.

What's the deal with the prizes and stuff?

Building ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History and the next great movement is serious, important work. There's no reason it can't be fun too. Throughout the year, ONE will spur students on in fun ways, encouraging their efforts and offering pep talks from high-profile ONE members and incentives to keep it up. There is much more than just the grand prize (which is so awesome our attorneys have advised us to keep it secret for now to avoid creating a mob scene) on the winning school's campus; there will be a series of rewards recognizing campuses that win weekly challenges or reach certain milestones.

Whether big or small, these prizes are meant only to serve as another tool in the student organizer's arsenal, helping them to involve more students in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.

THE ONE CAMPUS CHALLENGE is the ONE Campaign's initiative to engage American college students in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. It is a high-energy, creative organizing effort to funnel students' innovative ideas and passion into the growing movement to make poverty history.

For more information, please visit: http://www.one.org/campus.

ONE: THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans -- ONE by ONE -- to fight the emergency of global disease and extreme poverty. ONE is a coalition of millions of people and more than 100 of the nation's leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ONE.org.