Why Pledging?

Over the last few months I have explained to various students who are interested in the scholarship why it is that I require them to get people to pledge as part of the application process. My reasoning is something that is worth sharing discussing here, so I will try to make the case for this requirement as clearly as I am able.

First by way of explanation, the requirement is that students solicit pledges from at least five people. Their application is not considered complete until this condition is met. I will be clear with you, just as I was with them, that the amount is not the important issue and does not cause one applicant to be judged more favorably than another.

As for the reasoning, let me start with a little back story.

When the idea for this scholarship project started to take form in my mind, I was alone, running one of my various loops through the neighborhood. The concept was a bright and luminescent thing while it existed only between my ears. I feared sharing it with others because I was concerned that they would not see the brilliance as fully as I did. However, eventually I shared it with the one person who is continually my initial sounding board for all new ideas, my wife. She simply said that I should make it happen. There was no doubt. It was as if I suggested that I make some pasta for dinner. Go do it.

The following weekend I was out chasing down the end of a muddy trail with my two friends, Andrew and Andrew. For a while I held the idea back, fearing their response when I pitched it. I asked myself, “Will they really understand? Would they get it?” As we coursed through the Douglas firs, I eventually summoned the courage and told them of the idea. Not surprisingly, they too were instantly supportive. For the next half an hour or so, they were a sounding board, pummeling me with questions designed to probe and explore the idea. On that run, their queries and observations elucidated the fundamentals of the concept for me.

Some subsequent Monday, I joined my two counseling colleagues at a local restaurant for a post work Happy Hour. Emboldened by the positive support from my close inner circle, again I pitched the idea, and again I was met with encouragement and thoughtful insights. Like my wife, there was a collective affirmative voice saying, “Make it so.” And then, in that moment, I came to realize that I was losing the ability to back out of the venture. That initial glowing idea had not grown dull by sharing it; instead it only gained in radiance.

I believe it to be true that the more that we share a plan or goal, the more likely it is that we will achieve it. Simply by talking to people about the things that we want to attain, we accumulate a battery of people who—usually unintentionally—hold us accountable. This is one of the fundamental reasons why I ask my students to get people to make pledges. I want each student to talk about their plans with people and to tell them what they hope to achieve. Doing so cements for them what it is that they really want to do and develops a base of support. These people will ask, “Have you applied to colleges yet?” and in doing so remind the student that, well, they need to finish that stack of applications sitting on their desk.

By asking these applicants to request pledges, I am asking them to do more than beg for money. I am asking them solicit assistance and support. In considering this essay for the blog, I came to a strange little realization: five people—Mary, Mandy, Andrew, Andrew, and Carissa—were the critical mass that I needed to be motivated to transform a concept into a reality. Five is also the number of people that I am asking my students to get pledges from.

In fact this blog expands upon this very idea. Sharing the plan, the trials, and the successes both brings a wider circle into my own experience with this project as well as creates a broader base of people who will hold me accountable for my words and actions. As a result it embodies the very reason why I have asked the kids to be part of the pledging process.

So, thank you for motivating me.