Call to Service Collegiate Competition
Calling all creative and motivated communications students wanting to serve their communities!
The Call to Service Collegiate Competition was created to spark the humanitarian spirit of communications students by challenging them to develop a community service initiative and partner with a local broadcaster to execute their idea. Winners of the competition will be awarded scholarships and a matching donation for their charity.
Broadcasters have long played a critical role in addressing the issues and social concerns of their local communities. In a single year, radio and television broadcasters have generated as much as $10 billion. The Call to Service Competition will give students the opportunity to have their community service project highlighted by a local radio or television broadcaster.
If you are a communications student with great ideas and a passion to serve your community and you would like to partner with a local radio or television station to make an impact in your community, enter this competition. You can be a part of a generation that makes a difference in your world, one community at a time.
The Competition
Students may enter individually or in teams. Please see the rules and guidelines for details. NABEF will choose the top 20 project proposal submissions. Selected students will be fully responsible for developing and executing their ideas. Students will hone their journalism skills by contributing video blogs, articles, and news updates that chronicle their experience on the Call to Service site throughout the project. NABEF will provide a Flip camera for each project.
NABEF will assist the students in identifying a broadcast station partner. An additional option for students would be partnering with their college broadcast stations. While broadcasters are expected to contribute beyond partnering in name only, they are able to determine their level of involvement based on available resources. Some minimal levels of involvement can include highlighting the student’s initiative during newscasts, participating in an event planned by the student and running PSAs for the student’s event.
NABEF will judge each project for creativity, community involvement and use of media and technology to chronicle the project. First, second and third place winners will be selected to receive scholarships and have their work highlighted during the NABEF Service to America Awards gala. In addition, the scholarship dollars will be matched with a donation to the students’ charitable cause/organization.
Six prizes will be awarded as follows:
| 1st Place: | $10,000 Scholarship | Charity of 1st Place Project: | $10,000 Donation |
| 2nd Place: | $5,000 Scholarship | Charity of 2nd Place Project: | $5,000 Donation |
| 3rd Place: | $2,000 Scholarship | Charity of 3rd Place Project: | $2,000 Donation |
Winners of the Call to Service Collegiate Competition will be awarded scholarship money for the fall semester of the following academic year.
Winners will be flown out to NABEF's Celebration of Service to America Awards Gala in June.
For more information please contact Rumana Sultana, (202) 429-5428 or rsultana@nab.org.
Related Information
NABEF Support
In addition to providing the participants with a Web cam, NABEF will host two webinars. One webinar will provide the student ambassadors with training on effective news writing and story development. The webinar will be designed to assist students with posting their best content on the program Web site. The second webinar will track students' progress in the program and give them the opportunity to seek any assistance they need from NABEF.
