More Than a Test Score

Congratulations to all of you that made it to the State round! You are now among the top 2,500 students, and now is when the real fun begins.  March Madnezz is just getting started so here is a run down of whats to come.

State (February 22 to March 7)

The state round has already begun! So get your social media hype on and get some votes.  The state round will last until March 7th and at that date several students from each state bracket will advance to regionals.  For example if you are  Cynthia Wang in the California II bracket then don’t worry about how many votes James Johnston from the New York III bracket has.  Just focus on getting the most votes in your bracket!

Regionals (March 9 to March 16)

Regionals will begin with the 1000 students that advance from the States’ round to compete in the Regional round. Voting will follow the same pattern, and 46 students will qualify for the field of 64 based on peer votes. 12 more will be chosen by the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee and the last six will be made up from the Cinderella 6. This constitutes 64 total students that will advance to the Final Bracket.

Final 64

Once in the Final 64 the students will be put in four brackets East, West, North and South.  Each bracket will go through 4 rounds before reaching the Final Four. The four rounds with their dates respectively are First Round (Mar 19th – Mar 22nd), Second Round (Mar 23rd – Mar 25th), Sweet 16 (Mar 26th – Mar 29th) and 8 Elite (Mar 30th – Mar 31st ). The Final Four will go head-to-head April 1st, and the Finals will face off April 2nd.

Cinderella 6

Don’t worry to make the Cinderella 6 you wont need a pink frilly dress, just superb talent. So here is how the Cinderella 6 work, anyone who applied for the 2010 Sweet Diggity Dawg Scholarship still has a chance to win. All applicants can compete for the Cinderella 6 in one of the following areas: (1) Largest Facebook Fan Page (2) Best Video or (3) Top Inviter.  Six students will be chosen from those three categories.

If you have anymore questions consult the Official Rules.  Good luck to you all!

Hey Zinch community!

I have a few awesome Talent Show photos I want to share with y’all, but I’m a firm believer that visual stimuli require soundtracks (it’s like wine and cheese!) so before you check out the photos, click here to listen to “Windows” submitted by Jeanean N. I wish I could sing… *sigh*

Okay, onto the photos. I like to reward people who take initiative, and other than Jeanean N, only one other person linked Talent Show material on my second post, and her photos are pretty cool. From Macey C, check out “Broken“.

Next, from my native state of Texas (represent!) hails Rachel G and her photo “Swept Away“, which features a [very pretty] female model, Texas plains, and two red balloons. Take from it what you will.

I like travel photos. I was always the kid holding up the tour because I was snapping too many blurry, off-angle pictures of the scenery. Every now and then I would get something nifty, but combine a truly skillful touch and a beautiful locale and you’ll get something like “Repeating Window” by Olivia S.

I attend the University of Texas at Austin, and Austin is definitely a beautiful city, but I’ve always wanted to live in Hawaii. Now, I want to go to Hawaii even more because it now has LASER HIGHWAYS. Seriously! Check out “overpass” by Jamaica P. Photographic proof. (Okay, maybe not, but the picture still looks wicked.)

Last, but certainly not least, is “Facebook Table” by Grace M (close up here). I’m temporarily giving up Facebook (midterms! yikes) but I kind of wish I had this table so I could futilely pound my fists on the faux photos and links before snapping back to reality and remembering the tons of stuff waiting to be studied.

That’s all for now. Keep submitting to the Talent Show! One love.

I’ve always enjoyed being a part of the Zinch community because it helps remind me that I’m not alone. Thousands of other students worry about the rising costs of tuition and admissions systems that seem to view applicants as numbers and commodities rather than talented individuals.

I also like some friendly competition, especially if a little bit of money is at stake. In order to win the March Madnezz ‘Sweet Diggity Dawg’ $20,000 Scholarship, you’ll have to demonstrate talent, creativity, and initiative. Take a good look at the shining example of Shannon Keating.  Shannon Keating has made her own website to boost her votes, check it out at IVoteShannon.com. Her site is complete with her story and even sells T-shirts!  Beyond that Shannon has been featured in her local newspaper The Ridgefield Press, you can check out the article here. Way to go Shannon!

So here are some tips that should help you create your own hype:

Social Media

People are going to be going out of their way to vote for you.  More people will be willing to do this if it takes them less time.  The quickest and easiest way for people to vote is if they are already online so take advantage of all the social media tools the internet has to offer. Some great resources to ask people to vote for you would be through popular social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, or hi5. There are a million ways to get your name out there so get creative even if that means making your own website and selling T-shirts. Also don’t forget to use your blog as a platform. A key here is to remember that as “annoying” as it is to spam it could be the difference between winning $20,000 or not! So send out emails to EVERYONE you know, then have them forward your email to EVERYONE they know.

Media Attention

Take a lesson from Shannon and get in the newspaper. Remember the more people that hear about you the more people will vote for you.  So get your story and talent into the media.  Some great options are local newspapers, TV stations and blogs.  Do some research online and find some blogs that might take an interest in your story or talent and shoot them an email.  If you cant get a story about yourself then post comments various places on the web sharing your personal link. You never know when your comment will catch someone’s attention.

Networking

The key here is to be fearless and tenacious.  If you sat down and wrote every persons name that you know down you would be shocked at the number of names you could come up with.  You know a lot of people. Use this to your advantage! Put fliers up at school, get your soccer team to vote for you, convince your English teacher to give you a shout out in each of his or her classes. Get out there and get everyone you know to vote for you!

Family and Friends

So you know a lot of people, well so does each one of your family members and friends. So don’t forget to get them to help you spread the word! Whether that means having them forward your emails or whether that means having them shoot out facebook messages to their friends, just get them to help out.  Your parents have a different network then you and can have lots of options, so sit down with them and come up with a strategy.  To win you will need lots of votes so you have to throw caution to the wind and give it your all!

For those of you without websites or newspaper articles to your name: don’t give up hope. Remember, yours truly made it to the top 16 with nothing more than a Youtube rap and a Facebook group. Use your own networking skills to maximize the effectiveness of your self-promotion strategies!

I wish all of you the very best, and I look forward to following y’all’s progress through the rest of March Madnezz :)

It’s no secret that its hard to get people to vote even when it means the difference of $20,000 and a college education.  It is gonna take some creativity to get ‘em out to vote during this March Madnezz.  We would like to help you think of some clever ways to get the votes.

So learn from Samantha Kelley‘s example and check out her Zinch is Marching me to Madnezz group.  To get you to join her page she is offering you a deal, “I will recycle 1 bottle for every vote I receive.” On her page she makes a great point, that is, over the course of this contest she could receive thousands of votes which can really add up for a positive impact on the environment.

But going Green and recycling is not the only thing you can do to encourage people to vote for you, here are some ideas. Exploit your grandma, if you get the most votes she will go skydiving with you.  Give away free stuff, if you get the most votes you will give everyone that voted for you a free cookie! Threaten everyone, if you don’t get the most votes then you will shave your cat.  Just make your careful and don’t end up like John Jigitz. (He’s the guy that promised he would eat a chicken nugget for every vote he got, ended up trying to eat 100 chicken nuggets but throwing up after 60.)

Zinch is about getting yourself discovered and having fun. Our group of 2,500 State Finalists is an amazing group of students who are each in truth worthy of this scholarship but remember, only one of you get to take home the title of the 2010 Sweet Diggity Dawg.

(These examples were not meant to be used but meant to get your creative juices flowing in the right direction.  Zinch takes no responsibility for people shaving their cats.)

Good luck to everyone on getting ‘em out to vote!

We congratulate Leanne Stunkel winner of the 2010 Grad School Zinch Scholarship! She is a great example of pursuing your dreams and not letting anything get in your way.  We know with her tenacity she would have pursued graduate school with or without a scholarship, but here at Zinch we are proud to have helped her on her way.

When/where did you hear about Zinch and the “2010 Grad School Zinch Scholarship”?
I was referred to the Grad School Zinch Scholarship by another scholarship site.  I started filling out a Zinch profile because of the scholarship, and I’m so glad that I did!  Zinch has a lot of great features, and it’s so user-friendly.  I wish that Zinch had been around when I applied to college too!

What was your reaction when you found out that you had won the “2010 Grad School Zinch Scholarship”?
I was so excited!  I had to keep my exuberance in check because I was at work when I got the email.  After I left work, I called my parents to fill them in on the good news!  Medical school is expensive, and I am worried about how much debt I might take on.  My dream is to do research and teach at a medical school, and I don’t want medical school debt to take away my freedom to choose a job I love.  I am so grateful to Zinch for this scholarship!

What was your family’s reaction?
My parents were pretty surprised!  I had not mentioned applying, so they were shocked when I called to tell them I won.  They are very excited, because they know that the Grad School Zinch Scholarship is a big help toward my goal of becoming a doctor.

What led you to be interested in medicine, particularly medical ethics?
I initially became interested in ethics after taking an introductory class in moral philosophy during my freshman year of college.  I took a Bioethics course next, and became fascinated with the dilemmas that physicians face.  After that, I jumped at every opportunity to learn more about medicine and medical ethics.  I sought out clinical experiences at hospitals in Baltimore.  I took classes and attended seminars in Bioethics, joined the Bioethics Society at school, and eventually added a second major: Philosophy.  When I graduated, I decided to pursue research in medical ethics; I wanted to learn more about how to approach the difficult questions at the heart of medicine.  Learning about medical ethics has motivated me to become a physician. Above all, it is physicians who practice the tenets of medical ethics on a daily basis.  By becoming a physician, I can use both the love of science that led me to major in Biophysics and the love of medical ethics that led me to the NIH to make a significant impact in patients’ lives.

What is your dream grad school and why?
I don’t have a clear favorite yet, but I want to attend a medical school that emphasizes research and gives medical students both time and funds to devote to their research.  Research is a major part of the reason I want to go to medical school, so these opportunities are essential!  Additionally, I want to find a school that makes me feel comfortable and has friendly, enthusiastic students.  After all, I will be taking classes and working with those students for four years—I want to have fun with them!

What is one outrageous (as in crazy, impulsive, dangerous, etc…) thing you want to do before you die?
I really love to rock climb, but I have never been mountaineering.  Mountaineering involves hiking and climbing up both rock and ice to the top of a giant, snow-capped mountain.  It will be very cold and very challenging, but I don’t think anything could beat the sense of accomplishment at the top.  I guess I should start by learning how to ice climb!

How are you more than a test score?
I will bring a unique perspective to the medical school I attend.  My experience as a Bioethics fellow has given me a rich background in clinical medical ethics.  As part of the NIH Ethical Consultation service, I am part of the ethical debates that arise in the course of running a research hospital.  I have not simply read about the decisions physicians face—I have helped make them.  I believe that I can be an asset to a medical school as a result of these experiences and accomplishments in the up-and-coming field of medical ethics.  I have a strong desire to make advances in the field, and I have demonstrated the depth of this desire first by taking every opportunity to learn more about medicine and medical ethics as an undergraduate, and then by pursuing Bioethics research at the NIH.  I hope to continue learning about the exciting issues at the core of medicine, and I am confident that I will inspire my classmates to do the same.  None of that can be summarized by a test score.

Thanks Leanne and good luck! Everybody keep updating those profiles so we can see how amazing you are!