Self-Storage Directory Storage.com Announces Winners of Inaugural Scholarship Contest

Self-storage directory Storage.com announced the winners of its inaugural Scholarship Contest, which awarded $2,500 to a chosen applicant in each of three categories: a recent high school graduate, a currently enrolled college student, and the parent or guardian of a college student.

To be considered for the scholarship, student applicants were required to submit an essay or create a one- to two-minute video answering the question, “Given that you already have the necessities for college, if you could only take what fits into a backpack, what would you bring?” Parent/guardian applicants were asked to respond to: “In a perfect world, when your child moves out for college, what are you going to do with [his] bedroom?”

The two student winners are recent high-school graduate Olivia Fish of Edmond, Okla., who’ll attend Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and Lauren Bechtel of Lancaster, Pa., who’s enrolled at Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y. In her application, Fish said she would take her novels, tennis shoes for Zumba and photos that remind her of favorite memories. Bechtel said she would pack a deck of cards, an umbrella and her sense of adventure. Her love for travel makes packing a backpack second nature, she said.

The parent/guardian winner is Ruben Terrazas of Dallas. In his essay, he wrote that he would turn his daughter Astrid’s room into a “Batcave,” complete with oversized chairs, an underground gym and a motorcycle ramp. Astrid is enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she plans to continue studying visual artistry and design.

“Our team reviewed nearly 2,000 applications from across the United States. Selecting a winner in each category wasn’t easy because there were so many great entries,” said Bill Hipsher, co-founder of Omaha-based digital-marketing firm B² Interactive, which operates Storage.com. “It was great to see how creative the students and parents were with the entries and how they got their fans to support them online.”

“We had a great response to the Scholarship Contest and look forward to having it again next year,” said Nick Bilava, director of sales and marketing.

Based in Omaha, Neb., Storage.com is an online directory and marketing tool that delivers exclusive reservations and provides a complete search engine optimization package.