Zipcar and the Ford Motor Co. has awarded the UF American Marketing Association $5,500 in Zipcar credits as part of the Zipcar Students with Drive program.
Each month, from September to April, Zipcar gives away $5,500 in credits to university organizations that win the contest. Each runner-up organization will receive $1,000 in Zipcar credits. For the month of September, the Students with Drive program had 10 runners-up in addition to five winners.
Zipcar representative Bill Connolly said the Zipcar credits can be used for group memberships to join Zipcar or pay for driving hours in a Zipcar.
UF AMA president and advertising senior Jennifer Cephus said the application process consisted of liking the Zipcar page on Facebook, filling out information about AMA, uploading an AMA promotional video and receiving the most Facebook votes for the contest.
University organizations can apply within seven categories: academics, arts, athletics, community service and student life. UF AMA applied through the academic category.
“Zipcar is a huge deal for us,” said Cephus, 21. “Now we can get out there and do anything and everything we set out to do.”
Cephus said with the $5,500 credits, AMA members plan to use Zipcars to travel to the AMA 2013 International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans.
The Students with Drive program was first started in October 2011. Connolly said in the last year, Zipcar received about 300 applicants from nearly 140 colleges and universities.
Connolly said Zipcar is on more than 250 campuses nationwide.
UF has 13 Zipcars on five campus locations.
Along with winning the $5,500, AMA will be entered to win a grand prize in April. The grand prize includes an additional $5,000 Zipcar credits, $10,000 for the student organization and $10,000 for the winning university.
“Finalists will discover with (the) addition of Zipcar to their organization, they can broaden scope of what they do as an organization,” Connolly said.
