September 13, 2007

COSTEP Launches Unique Scholarship Program for Facebook Members

COSTEP, a not-for-profit servicer of student loans, announced that it has launched their “Scholarship Caps” program on the popular online social network Facebook. Facebook boasts 35 million members as of July 2007, with a core membership consisting of those who are in college or near college-age. Being made available to eligible Facebook members is a total of $5,000 in scholarships.

“Facebook members explain why they think they deserve a COSTEP scholarship,” explained COSTEP media director and project manager Joel Wilson. “Then they try to get their friends to vote for them. The five people with the most votes at the end of the program will be awarded the scholarships.”

“This program allows a broader group of people to be involved in the scholarship award process,” explained Patricia Beard, president of COSTEP. Our goal is to reach students and their parents and let them know that a college education is attainable and that paying for college is not out of their reach.”

COSTEP views this initiative as an innovative and cutting-edge approach for awarding scholarships. According to COSTEP, an all-in-one social network such as Facebook offers a new and different way to be in touch with students and their parents.

“We’re continually looking for new and different ways to reach out to students and young professionals,” said Wilson. “We’re really excited to see where this might go.”

The Scholarship Caps program was launched and made available to all Facebook members on Tuesday, September 4th. Those looking to join the scholarship contest and track the award results can do so on COSTEP’s homepage (www.costep.org), or contestants may join by searching the Facebook Application Directory for “Scholarship Caps.”

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For more information contact
Joel Wilson
Media Director / Project Manager
956.971.3308