“I was a point away from meeting the [university’s minimum GPA] standard, basically because my time management was horrible,” he explained. “I was very involved on campus, so I put my organizations before my school work.”
When he was accepted back into the School of Business, where he was vice president of his class freshman year, Arvinger thought his financial-aid status was the same and that his tuition was covered. Through a lack of communication with the university, he and his family were unaware that he had to reapply for financial aid within two weeks.
So how did he decide to get the money for tuition? By throwing the 2013-the equivalent of a bake sale: Groupsource it. More, via the USA Today:
One day at home, Arvinger was browsing his accounts on social media sites and brainstorming ways he could use them to get back to college. He realized that he had almost 4,000 Twitter followers and 10,000 friends on Facebook.
“I thought if I could get 14,000 people to give me $4, then I can get back to school,” he said.
With help from his friend and former resident hall assistant, David Castain, Arvinger created the website 4for14000.com to share his story and ask for donations to pay off his debt and go back to Howard. He hopes that visitors to his site can realize the great impact their small donation will have.
“People go to Starbucks and spend $4 easily, without even thinking about it,” he said. “If you can’t have Starbucks for one day, just one day, and put $4 toward the education of an African American who’s really trying to push to make himself better, then why wouldn’t you help?”
Kind of a cool way to pay those tuition bills. He has national media attention now, too, so there's a good chance he'll meet the goal. If you want to help a bro out, here's a link to his #4for14000 site where you can donate.
My only concern: If every college student who has financial trouble (and, let's face it: we all do at one point in college) starts trying to group source it through crowfunding sites, this innovative way of funding an education is going to get played out fast.
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