So I was able to spend some more time with our March Madnezz champion and Sweet Diggity Dawg, Lauren Thames. I’m telling you, impressive. This girl is not only busy with making the world a better place today, she has plans to change the world.

So what’s it like to be crowned the Zinch 2009 Sweet Diggity Dawg?

“I don’t know if it’s hit me yet” said Lauren through the phone.

Maybe once she gets through reading the 150 txts that hit her cell phone to congratulate her on winning the $20,000 scholarship it’ll start to sink in. Lauren beat out Elias Boujaoude (another amazing student with great things on the horizon) with 1906 votes to his 1873.

Lauren is a very active and involved student. From student government to arts and crafts, state tennis to working with kids with disabilities, or winning choir competitions to preparing for a trip to Romania to volunteer at an orphanage this summer. Her attitude is care-free, but with direction. She’s a simple church going girl from Kansas with faith and confidence that she is doing what’s right and things work out the way they’re supposed to. What are the two things she can’t live without? Her bible and her teddy bear.

“It was great seeing how much support I had out there. Hard work pays off. It nice to see a lot of people love me” Lauren continued to say.

A lot of people spread the love to all 64 finalists involved in the competition. Ultimately yes, Lauren received the most love, but hundreds of thousands of votes were cast for our final 64 students. Votes from all 50 states and multiple countries as well. Lauren even mentioned getting votes from Sweden.

“I am passionate, caring, and determined. I aspire to be a nurse and dream of working on a medical missions team.” Lauren says through her Zinch profile. She’s taking her dream and aspirations to Baker University. A small school in Kansas, one that she puts as “close to home, but not too close.” Her plans are to play tennis for 2 years and then head up to the nursing school in Topeka. She’s learned that she loves to work with people and wants to always be in a position to help. That’s why she’s going to become a nurse.

She did everything needed to pull off this win. For those that want to enter into next year’s Sweet Diggity Dawg scholarship, take some notes…From facebook to mass emails, parents support to campaigning in her high school (as seen in the pic to the side). She felt that face to face, one on one campaigning was still the most effective. That personal touch is what’s important to her and she thinks it’s what got her the win.

More than anything, from the start she never looked at the end picture. She says she focused on the moment, one step at a time. She just wanted to get to the next level, next round. Not until the Final Four did she think she could actually win.

“I feel like I got lucky, I never expected it all. I was just hoping.”

Well the girl from Kansas did. She won. All those days (and late nights) paid off. The conscious and sub-conscious thoughts of zinch…scholarship…zinch… were worth it. The obsession, the highs and lows, and the support of her friends, family, Zinchers and strangers ultimately brought her the crown of Zinch’s Sweet Diggity Dawg.

Now that this is over she can go back to being her busy high school self. But for the next year she’ll wear the prestigious title of Zinch’s Sweet Diggity Dawg. Congrats to Lauren Thames!!

For those looking to get involved in the competition next year, make sure you go apply HERE.

The Cinderella 6 has been finalized.  With amazing efforts on all fronts, we got our 6.  They’re in the brackets.  We loved all the videos- there were so many good ones.  The committee went back and forth on these, and finally picked a winner.  Hope you like it.  All those others that submitted a video, we’ll be sending you out some Zinch t-shirts.  You all did a great job.

So…entertaining, creative, funny, awkward, zinch descriptions, zinchified…

Hope you all are ready for the madness. It’s March. Voting starts Wed. Hoops starts Thur. To get your mind right…

We’ve posted everyone in the 64 except for the Cinderella 6. Check it out. Final 64.

Voting starts Wed, it’s head to head match ups. Cinderella’s will be announced Monday.

If you’re in the final 64, make sure you look at your match-up profile and tell all the voters why you deserve their vote:)

Good luck!!

And so it is written. 44 fabulous students have risen to the top after 2 rounds of competition. Wow, there were some close match-ups! Congrats to those that moved on to the next round, and hats off to all those that participated. Wish we could give you all scholarships! :(

We are getting closer to the final 64. All day today and well into tomorrow our scholarship committee will be sifting through other semi-finalists to pick another 14. 6 spots still remain for the Cinderella 6, determined March 16th. We are doing our best to let you know asap, so you can prep your campaigns and get ready for the tourney.

Those that have moved on (the 44)- Your names and match-ups will be posted onto the site by the end of day tomorrow. You will be seeded according to votes from last round and place in your region. All the blank spots will be filled by our Cinderella 6 and final 14 soon to be chosen. Note that just because you were in the East in the regionals, doesn’t mean you’ll be in the east for the 64. This is where we mix everything up, and have you match-up with students from other regions.

FYI…Make sure you are aware of the timing on each round. It will go a lot faster in the tournament of 64, no longer a week per round.

Finalist- Expect an email soon. It’s game time!

Props to Truman Melton. This kid has got talent. He’s showing us his passion, and he is definitely more than a test score. Way to bring it, you earned yourself a shout out. Holler at him in March Madness in South 2. Enjoy Zinchers…

You guys have been rocking the vote. We’ve had over 100,000 votes in the first week so far! State voting ends tomorrow and we have some really close races for the final spots in almost every state. I expect some late night runs tonight. Give it what you got, one step closer.

I thought I’d share some of these fun videos we’ve seen from the Cinderella 6. Everyone’s got until March 16th to top these:) Make sure you reply to our original post for it to count. This could get you right into the final 64…

Voting has started. We hope everyone can get out and vote whether you’re in the competition or not.

All voting buttons are on the March Madness pages.  All parents, college students or others that are not in high school need to register before voting.  All users must confirm their email address (as part of the registration process) before they can participate in voting.

Parents and others should not register as a high school student. They can register as a “College student” or “other.”  

Good luck with getting the votes everybody. Let the games begin.

All Semi-Finalists are now up on Zinch!! Find them on our March Madnezz pages today.

I sent out an email to all semi-finalists with some hints. Use them. This is what made people successful last year. It should help give you ideas on how to get votes.

There has been confusion with Facebook. You don’t have to create a Facebook account, we’ve simply said that is where you can find out early. We’ve always said that the semi-finalist would be announced today, Feb 23rd on Zinch. Facebook app lets you spread the word and allows us to match you to some other scholarships through your profile. If you’re not on Facebook no worries.

Visit our March Madnezz pages if you haven’t already. Most details are there!!

It’s public voting, so anyone can vote for anyone. Voters must create a Zinch profile and confirm their email address to vote. For anyone that is not a high school student we will have new accounts for them starting Wed with the voting. When any of your family or friends come to Zinch to vote, they will have the option to choose what kind of user they are. Then after they do that, they can vote for you. The person with the most votes at the end of each round moves on. Votes are cleared back to zero after each round.

Any form of cheating will not be tolerated. Any suspicious activity will lead to disqualification.

Any high school student is eligible for the Cinderella 6. Props to all those in the hustle to make it to the top right now. The leader board is looking good. Remember this goes until Mar 16th, so everyone’s still got time. Here’s a tip for those creating groups: make sure you give out your tracking URL to your group. When they join Zinch you get credit and are in the running for the Top Inviter spot. That’s how our #1 student, Nitchakarn, is doing it.

Voting starts Wed!! Get it together, get out of the chutes early, and have a game plan. You’ll have a week to make sure you get to the next round. We’re excited to see you amazing students do your thing. Rock the Vote!! March Madnezz ’09.