Among the troubles plaguing the world today are the financial crisis, the war on terror, climate change, hunger, poverty, and . . . post-graduate debt?
Indeed, Michael Kopko, as CEO of his first start-up DormAid, a personal laundry and housekeeping service for college students, was appalled to hear that the girlfriend of his brother, Matthew Kopko, was going to graduate $120,000 in debt from her five-year physical therapy program. It was then that he realized, “you are building a business, but not solving a world problem,” Kopko explained in an interview with The Spectator from his office in Manhattan. “Kids graduating in debt––and the stress of that––is a world problem.”
So the two brothers and members of the DormAid team launched the GradeFund at the end of 2008, a website that allows students––from middle schoolers to graduate-degree seekers––to get paid for good grades as tuition prices continue to soar. The site’s founders hope that such monetary incentives will spawn a “revolution,” boosting students’ drive and encouraging them to strive for academic excellence, “one A at a time,” according to their mission statement.
In the same way that marathon runners solicit friends and family to pledge money for each mile they run, GradeFund users solicit friends and family to pledge money for every kind of A and B they earn. Ideally, the higher each grade, the more cash students rake in. “Money is just as easily raised in small amounts from lots of people as it is in large amounts from one person,” Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Stein explained. “The GradeFund was designed to help students from all corners of the globe, and sponsors are able to give as little as $5.00. If you have 100 sponsors giving $5.00 per A, that adds up very quickly.”
At the end of each semester, students upload their transcripts, and once the GradeFund confirms the grades, the site sends the spoils to either the schools or the students themselves. To receive checks, students must first raise $100.00 or more, though the site will send out checks for sums under $100.00 for a $5.00 charge. Sponsors’ credit cards are billed, and the GradeFund takes a 5% chunk out of the accumulated monies, mainly to compensate for credit-card charges.
In addition, individuals and companies can establish “educational causes” to reward students who are pursuing specific areas of study, and the GradeFund will send the money to users who meet those qualifications. “The causes and corporate sponsorships are an additional venue for students to raise money without having to reach into their networks,” Stein added. In fact, for every sponsored A, the GradeFund will donate to One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit that distributes low-cost, energy-efficient laptops to the world’s poorest children.
This philanthropic spirit is just one of the many reasons Michael Beck, a freshman at the University of Michigan, has become a die-hard GradeFunder. Since discovering the site from an advertisement on Facebook, he has maintained six sponsors and has accumulated nearly $300 from his first semester grades.
“My parents and grandparents are only supporting me for grades in the A-range, which has motivated me even more to strive for perfection,” Beck said. “[Michigan] is a tough school, and this extra motivation has helped me in my pursuit to stand out in a good way in such a large and tough school.
“As for anything the website can do better, maybe have a search tool or some way to make it easier to find sponsors or scholarships,” he added.
Regardless, the Michigan student is getting pumped for the day employers will be able to search for him on the GradeFund. CEO Kopko told The Spectator that he is confident the site’s database of uploaded grade reports can be marketed as a wellspring of potential interns and employees, while still safeguarding users’ privacy. In fact, there are Hamilton students registered on the site, but its administrators did not release their names to The Spectator for privacy reasons.
Yet the GradeFund has already caught the eye of sophomore Scott Kleinklaus. Though he acknowledges that Hamilton gave him an “outstanding” financial aid package, he hopes to pay off his college loans from the profits he makes off stocks that he purchased four years ago for the experience of investing. The budding Economics major admitted that the GradeFund would be a welcome supplement to his portfolio and applauds the use of incentive to motivate students of a generation that craves “instant gratification.” Best of all, he says, the incentives are accessible to students “all across the board,” both in terms of academic and socio-economic standing.
“When you are in school, awards are the only incentives to work hard, and they are only for the cream of the crop,” Kleinklaus explained. “Incentives are just not there, unless you call Mom to hear her say ‘congratulations.’”
