Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Will, one part of the Generation Joshua that you’ve revamped in the last few years is the Ben Rush Awards program. How have you changed this program to get more students involved in civics?

Will Estrada:
Mike, the Benjamin Rush Awards program is named after one of our famous founders. And it allows Generation Joshua students to get rewards, including college scholarships as a reward for political and civic involvement.

We have five levels of participations, so all students can get some type of reward. Students are required to write letters to elected officials and the media, volunteer with a local or national campaign, set up and run non-partisan voter registration drives, participate in a petition drive for a candidate or issue to name a few of the things that these Ben Rush participants do. Awards include GenJ t-shirts for modest achievements all the way to an iPod for significant work. And up to our top prize of a $1000 dollar college scholarship to the college or university of the student’s choice. This goes to our hardest working students. These prizes create incentives for students to make a difference in our nation, giving them a foundation of excellent civic involvement.

Mike:
Will, on our Home School Heartbeat website we’re going to have a direct link to the Benjamin Rush awards so that people listening can get involved. I’m Mike Farris.