Americans are divided about what to do to fix our schools, but we can all agree on one thing: they’re a mess.
While curriculum and teachers get a lot of attention, the infrastructure of our education system is collapsing around our kids. From rats, broken windows, leaking pipes and collapsed ceiling tiles to mildewed carpets, our learners are often expected to endure and excel in conditions that no corporation could get away with providing to their employees.
Starting October 15, NBC brings you School Pride, a new reality series about communities coming together to do something about the sorry state of their schools. The entire community, School Pride’s hosts (Tom Stroup, Susie Castillo, Kym Whitley and Jason Soboroff), and corporations like Microsoft and Home Depot as well as GM and Wal-Mart, come together to completely renovate some of the country’s most dilapidated schools. First up will be Enterprise Middle School in Compton, California, followed by additional schools in California, Louisiana, Michigan and Tennessee.
As the technology partner for the series, Windows is sponsoring an online contest to give one lucky school a total tech makeover. If your school is stuck in 1990s, here’s what you can do to enter:
– Fill out an entry form and upload a 1-to-4 minute video on why your school needs a computer lab or computer lab makeover;
– Entries will be scored by NBC on personality (33 points), creativity (33 points), and need (34 points) and 5 finalists will be selected;
– From November 5-29, 2010, the 5 finalist videos will be posted on www.nbc.com/microsoft for public viewing and voting. Visitors may vote once per day for the school of their choice, and the finalist who receives the most total votes wins a tech makeover from Windows valued at $30,000; and
– In addition, each of the students whose videos are selected as finalists will receive an HP G72t laptop!
So watch School Pride, get your creativity and cameras moving and enter your school today!
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Full terms and conditions can be found here.