OKLAHOMA CITY -- Tinker Federal Credit Union members have voted and Oklahoma State University pre-med student Chase Vincent is the winner of the What Money Means to Me $2,000 Video Scholarship.
Vincent's video entry won over seven other finalists after a week of online voting at www.WhatMoneyMeansToMe.org.
Another OSU student, Stephanie Bowen won the View 'n' Vote Fan Favorite category and walked away with a $200 iTunes gift card.
TFCU received 28 video entries after launching www.WhatMoneyMeansToMe.org and advertising the contest through the Web site, area schools, FaceBook and local media. Oklahoma high school, college and vo-tech students age 16 to 24 were eligible to submit a video explaining, in 90 seconds or less, what money means to them.
Once a panel of judges selected the top eight videos, online viewers cast bracket votes to determine the winner. All eight finalists received a $50 iTunes gift card.
"Winning this scholarship would mean being able to leave OSU debt free and reduce the burden that chiropractic school will be financially," Vincent said after learning his video was one of the finalists. "This contest has been a blessing."
In addition, all 28 videos were available for viewing on the View 'n' Vote Fan Favorite page of the Web site. Viewers could vote for their favorite.
The site www.WhanMoneyMeansToMe.org had over 3,500 unique visitors during the week of voting. There were 2,376 bracket votes cast for all match ups between March 31 and April 6, and 1,759 View 'n' Votes cast during the same period.
"We're not trying to sell a specific product to these young people; we just want to get them started thinking about the role finances play in their lives," said Senior Vice President of Marketing Matt Stratton. "TFCU is stepping up its financial education efforts in the communities we serve, and this contest was a fun way to engage young people in the process. We plan to continue the Web site and have another competition next year, possibly with a different topic."
--mdigiovanni@cutimes.com
