Charge On Scholarship Winner Buys Car and Makes News

An innovative research project conducted by USC Pullias Center for Higher Education, the non-profit Get Schooled, and California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), made the local news in Los Angeles that highlighted the pilot program and featured one of its scholarship winners.  CBS News in Los Angeles visited CSUDH to learn more about Charge On and its approach to getting students to Graduation Day.

The reporter caught up with Angel, one of the two students randomly selected as a $1,000 scholarship winner out of the many who had earned a chance for the top Charge On prize by participating in a special digital campaign designed to utilize gamification, technology, and social media tools to motivate, educate, and support students in transitioning to college.

Angel revealed that he had been spending about five hours every day using public transportation to get him to and from the Carson campus for his classes.  The long commute had him thinking about dropping out, which was the fate of about one-in-five first year students on that campus.  He became aware of the Charge On game and started earning badges for completing online tasks that taught academic, financial, and health skills useful to students making their way through college.  He qualified for the final drawing and ended up one of two winners.

The win was a real turnaround for Angel.  His move was to spend the money to get a car, significantly cutting down his commute time and opening more opportunity to focus on school work and studies towards earning a political science degree.

“It gives me strength to be able to continue pushing and pushing so that in the end I can graduate,” noted Angel.

You can view the original news story on the CBS site or read a heartwarming story about the other Charge On scholarship winner.