By participating in this scholarship competition, entrants agree to be bound by these official rules and the decisions of PROGRESSIVE U.ORG ("Sponsor"), and waive any right to claim ambiguity in this competition or these competition rules.
1. COMPETITION PERIOD AND ENTRY DATES: The competition will begin at 12:01 a.m. (PDT) on October 1, 2008 and end at 12:00 noon (PST) on December 15, 2008. To be eligible during this competition period entrants must create a ProgressiveU.org user account and indicate agreement with these Official Rules by no later than 11:59 p.m. (PST) on November 15, 2008.
2. ELIGIBILITY: Open to those aged 16 or older as of November15, 2008, who will be attending a regionally or nationally accredited college, university, or vocational school for during the 2009 or 2010 calendar year. If a scholarship winner does not enroll in a qualifying educational institution by June 30, 2010, the award will be forfeited. This competition is subject to all applicable international, federal, state and local laws and regulations. Employees of ProgressiveU.org, administrators and moderators of ProgressiveU.org, members of the immediate family or household of employees, administrators, or moderators of ProgressiveU.org, and previous winners of this competition are not eligible.
3. HOW TO ENTER: Entrants must create a user account on ProgressiveU.org and indicate their agreement with the Official Rules. Official Rules and account registration forms are available online.
4. By submitting an entry and other online postings, the participant: (a) warrants and represents that he/she has read these Official Rules, is eligible to participate in the competition and agrees to be bound thereby; (b) warrants and represents that the submission materials are the original work of the participant and do not violate any third party's legal rights (including without limitation rights of copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right, privacy and/or publicity), and/or any applicable law; and (c) agrees that, if selected as a winner, participant will be solely responsible for any and all resulting tax consequences.
5. AWARDS: One (1) one-time scholarship grant of $1500(US) will be awarded in January 2009, based on participant point totals as of December 15, 2008, as outlined below. The scholarship monies or award will be paid directly to each winner upon verification that winner has applied, been accepted and matriculated at an accredited college, university or technical school. Further terms and conditions of the award are outlined below. Awards are not transferable. If a winner chooses not to accept his or her award, an alternate winner may be chosen.
6. WINNER SELECTION: The winner will be selected based on accumulated point totals as of 12:00 Noon, Pacific Standard Time, on December 15, 2008. The participant with the highest validated point total as of that date and time will be awarded the $1500 scholarship, provided the winner meets and complies with all other rules outlined in these Official Rules, the Terms of Service or FAQs.
7. POINT SYSTEM: Participants will receive points as outlined below for completing the following actions during the Competition Period: (a) Fifty (50) points will be awarded for each 200 original word or more personal blog entry that is accepted for posting on ProgressiveU.org website. (b) One (1) point will be awarded for each unique read of posts accepted during the Competition Period. A unique read ("Read") is defined as a single load of a post by a web browser software client, as accounted for and tracked by ProgressiveU's content management system software. (c) Ten (10) points will be awarded for each comment by the user accepted for posting on the ProgressiveU.org website during the Competition Period. Only comments that are posted while logged in to the ProgressiveU.org website under participant's user account will be counted toward the awarded point total. (d) Additional bonus point opportunities may be announced during the course of the competition, at the sole discretion of Sponsor.
8. WINNER NOTIFICATION: The winner will be notified by e-mail within approximately ten (10) business days of the selection. Return of any notification as undeliverable, if Sponsor is unable to contact winner after reasonable effort, or failure of potential finalist to respond within forty-eight (48) hours of first attempted notification, will result in forfeiture of the award and selection of an alternate finalist at Sponsor's discretion. Sponsor may use applicants' names, likenesses, and other information for promotional purposes associated with its scholarship programs. Winners must be enrolled in a college, university, or vocational school in the United States or abroad during 2009 or 2010. Before paying the scholarship monies to a winner, Sponsor may require reasonably satisfactory evidence of the winner's eligibility, in accordance with the conditions of these Official Rules. Winner will forfeit all or a portion of the scholarship award if he or she does not fulfill the requirements, as determined by Sponsor.
9. DISTRIBUTION OF AWARD: Scholarship monies will be awarded as follows:
a. Winner must be enrolled at a qualifying educational institution as outlined above.
b. Enrollment at one of the qualifying educational institutions does not have to be a "new" or first-time enrollment. Qualifying entrants may include individuals beginning a course of study for the first time, who are currently pursuing a course of study, who have completed one level of education at one school and are seeking additional courses of study at either the same school or a different school. (Example: an individual who has completed the requirements for an Associate's degree, but is enrolled at the same school or a different school to pursue a Bachelor's degree).
c. This award is not transferable.
d. This award will be paid in one lump sum to the winner.
10. GENERAL: Each potential winner of a scholarship award will be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and, where legal, a Publicity Release, within ten (10) days of first attempted notification. In the event of noncompliance, the potential winner may be disqualified and an alternate winner may be selected, at Sponsor's sole discretion. By entering, participant (a) agrees to be bound by the Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor (including but not limited to eligibility determinations) which are final and binding in all respects; (b) participant further agrees to fully and forever release and hold harmless Sponsor, its officers, directors, employees, agents and other authorized representatives, from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, actions, or expenses (including attorneys' fees and costs) of any kind whatsoever, in connection with participation in the competition or winning, accepting, taking possession of, or using any of, the awards awarded hereunder, including without limitation personal injury, death, property damage, right of privacy, right of publicity, defamation and violation of any third party’s intellectual property rights; and (c) consent to use of his/her name, photograph and/or likeness for advertising and promotional purposes in connection with this competition without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law.
11. DISQUALIFICATION: A participant may be disqualified from any award at the sole discretion of Sponsor if an entrant (a) disrupts the competition, circumvents the terms and conditions of these Official Rules, or in any way tampers with the competition, or otherwise (b) violates the Official Rules, Terms of Service or other official policies.
12. ACCOUNTS. Members registering for the Blogging For Progress Scholarship Competition must have only one account per IP Address. Occasionally, there may be a need to sign up for a separate account using the same computer, as in a situation where multiple people share a computer and wish to participate. Requests for a second account using the same computer can be made by emailing the site's management with the reason for an additional account and the intended username. If permission was not obtained and multiple accounts are found at one IP Address, all accounts will be placed under review. If it is found that the multiple accounts were used to skew competition results, harm or misappropriate portions of the site, or in other ways violate the Terms of Service, all accounts will be blocked and all points earned towards the competition will be forfeited.
13. INTERNET: Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, suspend or terminate the competition should a computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention or other causes beyond Sponsor's control corrupt the administration, logging, security, or proper conduct of the competition. In such event, the scholarship will be awarded at Sponsor's discretion from among eligible entries received up to the date/time of corruption or modification, to the extent feasible.
Sponsor is not responsible for late, lost, incomplete, inaccurate or misdirected entries, whether caused by any technical or human error which may occur in the processing of the entries in the competition; computer system, phone line, equipment or computer malfunctions, or other errors or delays; or for any other technical problems related to web site entries. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY A PERSON TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE, MANIPULATE WEB SITE STATISTICS BY MANUAL OR AUTOMATED MEANS, OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS COMPETITION IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. In the event of a dispute, entries will be declared made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at time of entry. "Authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, on-line service provider or other organization (e.g., business, educational, institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.
14. DISPUTES: This competition and these Official Rules shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of California without regard to conflict of law doctrines. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
15. RULES/WINNER INFORMATION: For winner information or an additional copy of these Official Rules, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope by December 15, 2008 to ProgressiveU, Scholarship Winner, P.O. Box 686, San Mateo, CA 94401.
16. SPONSOR: The sponsor of this competition is
PROGRESSIVE U.ORG, P.O. Box 686, San Mateo, CA 94401.
