Justin Correll has gotten lucky before.
In elementary school, he entered a raffle and won a bicycle.
Now, he is getting a new bicycle again, this time with some of the $25,000 he won in a Kaplan sweepstakes.
Correll, a UF electrical engineering junior, has led a life not typical to the average college student.
At age 30, he is back at school after joining the workforce as an electrician.
He’s been back for two years and transferred to UF over the Summer in order to make a better career for himself. It was over the Summer in the Reitz Union when he and two friends were approached by a Kaplan representative to enter the sweepstakes.
His friends were skeptical, but Correll decided to enter anyway.
Fast-forward to December: Correll was sitting on a bench, waiting for a call from an internship he applied for.
While going over what he would say in the interview, he received a phone call from a number in New York. He answered the call, and a woman told him he was the winner of $25,000.
Correll received his check two weeks ago. He waited to tell his family. He said he and his parents aren’t the type to get excited about things easily, but this was an exception.
“Most people don’t know what to say,” Correll said. “What do you say?”
The contest, sponsored by Kaplan as a way to give back to its undergraduates, has been going on for 10 years, said Jeff Thomas, Kaplan director of graduate programs.
One name gets selected in the random drawing.
The money comes from profits made by Kaplan classes and textbooks the company sells.
Thomas said one reason the company has the contest is to interest students in taking higher education classes such as getting a master’s or law degree.
However, he said none of the winners are obligated to go to graduate school after they win.
Many do choose to go to graduate school, and others choose to join the workforce. Correll said he plans to get his master’s after he gets his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
Correll, who felt relief when he won the sweepstakes, already used the winnings to pay off the $10,000 credit card debt he incurred through his life change from full-time electrician to full-time student.
Part of the debt came from a $4,000 renovation he had to make to his Jacksonville condo in order to rent it out so he could move to Gainesville.
Correll said the rest of the money will go into a savings account to help him pay off his student loans and help pay for graduate school.
He said before he won the money, he and his wife were barely able to get by.
However, Correll will use the money for a few fun things. He hopes to make a big purchase soon: a $500 Cannondale road bike, a used one in good condition.
“My biggest pet peeve is having to wait an hour for the bus,” Correll said.
He also hopes he and his wife of two years, Trissillian Correll, will be able to travel, either at the beginning of Summer or this December.
When Correll does begin to start studying for graduate school, he said he would use Kaplan to help him prepare for the GRE.
“I think it would be bad karma if I didn’t use them,” he said.
Correll said he has gotten lucky in the past before like with winning the bike in elementary school. Usually he doesn’t win things, he said.
However, Correll did get the internship he was waiting to hear from on the day he got the call from Kaplan.
He said quitting his job and going back to school was a gamble.
“All those choices that were iffy paid off,” Correll said.
Justin Correll, 30, a UF electrical engineering junior, won $25,000 from Kaplan Test Prep’s annual Where Will You Take You sweepstakes.
