It’s not every day that SCAD students have an opportunity to ask questions directly to the White House, but this is your chance to be heard.
WhiteHouse.gov and Huffington Post (HuffPost) College will co-host a 30-minute “Open for Questions” live video chat on or after April 7, with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Melody Barnes, President Barack Obama’s top national domestic adviser.
The questions asked during the live chat will come from HuffPost College’s network of college and university newspapers, which includes District. Here’s how it will work:
1. Send your question(s) to editor@nathanielholland.com/district or tweet them to @scaddistrict by 2 p.m., Thurs. April 1. Your questions must be directly related to U.S. education policy. Some topics for consideration:
- Today’s signing by the president of the Student Aid and Financial Relief Act (SAFRA), which when enacted in 2014 will provide additional funds for Pell Grants and other student loan programs, will increase accessibility to loan programs, decrease associated fees and interest by moving loans from private banks to the government and will limit the required repayment to no more than 10 percent of a graduate’s income.
- Loan forgiveness through public service.
- Career planning and business involvement to transition from school to the work force.
- Arts funding for schools.
Be sure to include your name, major, year, contact information, and a brief summary of the context of your question. Be clear, concise and creative.
2. District editorial staff will review the questions and select the top three. For each question, staff will write a 350-word blurb, which must be submitted to the HuffPost by noon, on April 2.
3. HuffPost College will select the top 25 questions of all submitted, and will notify District if any of your questions are chosen. District staff will contact the selected students for taping a 30-second video of you asking your question. The video(s) must be sent to HuffPost no later than 6 p.m. April 4.
4. On Mon. April 5, the HuffPost community will vote for the top video questions to ask Duncan and Barnes. We will need the entire SCAD community to vote.
5. The HuffPost will reveal which video question received the highest number of votes on April 6. The editor of the newspaper with the winning video will be flown to Washington, D.C., to ask 10 or more questions during the live chat, which will be streamed live on both WhiteHouse.gov and the Huffington Post.
This is SCAD’s chance to shine on the national stage, but we can’t do it without you.
