Next-gen pioneer and Middlebury employee Meghan Mason launches crowd-funding campaign to collect stories about the barriers low-income students face in entering higher education.
WASHINGTON, DC – This August, The Millennial Trains Project (MTP), a Washington, DC based organization, will host the nation’s first crowd-funded, transcontinental train journey to empower Millennials to advance innovative projects in ten localities across the U.S. A diverse group of pioneering Millennials (age 18-34) have proposed creative projects and launched crowdfunding campaigns to secure their spot on the journey that will travel from San Francisco, CA to Washington, DC. The train itself, a caravan of refurbished mid-20th century train cars, will serve as a mobile innovation lab, campus, and dormitory.
Meghan Mason, Coordinator of International Programs and Off-Campus Study at Middlebury College, is among those vying for a spot on the train. To get on board, Meghan must reach a $5,000 fundraising goal in support of her project by July 1st. Meghan, who says she was lucky enough to find a way to pay for college, has applied to The Millennial Trains Project with the goal of collecting real stories from people about the hurdles they face in pursuing higher education.
The goal of Meghan’s project, which she will advance across the localities where MTP’s train stops, is to add a human face to the numbers commonly cited on the issue of sending more students to college. Her project “will make the broad statistics that much more real and relatable to hear about the triumphs, tribulations and everyday lives of the people I’ll meet on this journey.” She will update a blog during each day of the journey, and upon the trip’s end, write an article so administrators and academics can understand the issue better.
“Meghan’s project exemplifies the sort of exploration, shared discovery, and learning that MTP is designed to support,” said Patrick Dowd, the Millennial Trains Project’s 26 year-old founder and CEO. “MTP is a real-world platform the next generation to explore their personal, professional, and creative frontiers on a national scale — and to better understand our country in the process.”
Anyone age 18-34 is eligible to apply for the Millennial Trains Project’s inaugural journey, which will travel from San Francisco, CA to Washington, DC this August 8-17. The deadline for fundraising to get on board is July 1st. To learn more about the Millennial Trains Project, visit http://millennialtrain.co/; to contribute to the crowdfunding campaigns of next-gen pioneers vying to get on board, visit http://crowdhitch.millennialtrain.co/.