Blog/opportunities

 

Inspiration and Impact - All from Teens

In the end, STLF pushed forth a strong effort to earn 32% of the prize, or $79,000.

Author: Greg Tehven, STLF

Irene and I sat down for a cup of coffee with Best Buy's Tim Showalter-Loch in October for a conversation about what it means to be a successful teenager. He shared his vision which Best Buy had adaptated to give $1,000,000 into the hands of young people to allow them to give out to non-profits doing meaningful work. He also invited STLF to be part of one of the rounds of competition where $250,000 would be up for grabs. 

Little did Tim know, we were ecstatic. We had hoped to be part of the campaign and were now given the opportunity to compete. Could our base of young people be mobilized? Would they help? How would we do it?

Shortly after the meeting, we assembled a team filled with college students that would help us. Our team consisted of Abby Huebsch from the University of Minnesota, Michael Forsberg from Northpark University, and Jon Okstad from North Dakota State University. We built a strategy, created marketing materials, and started asking our friends to help.

We gathered in late December to prepare and start executing our strategy. Our competition would be stiff, with 3 other well established organizations in the mix. Our hope was to be more prepared, work harder, and have more fun than the other teams.

As the competition went live in January, we realized quickly that our base of students from the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest would be great. What we didn't expect was the unbelievable support from teachers, parents, and alumni. Facebook statuses were changed, classrooms were visited, and calls were made. 

Alumni in Teach For America started promoting it to their co-workers, college students called former teachers, and the power of text messaging was utilized. Two new high schools even emailed in to see if they could create their own Pay It Forward Tours.

In the end, STLF pushed forth a strong effort to earn 32% of the prize, or $79,000. It would not have been possible without the help of the students that promoted their opportunity in their schools, our staff for their extra hours, or the talented college students that shared with us their vision for success.

I guess Tim taught us all a wonderful lesson. If you give young people the chance to be part of something, they can do great things. Best Buy revealed the leadership of the teens involved with STLF, and for that, we say thank you!

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