The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Ford have partnered to create the 2017 HBCU Drive 2 Greatness contest, where students and alumni can enter to win prizes for their school.

“What Ford has decided to do is to generate a competition in conjunction with Tom Joyner to promote campus life by having a contest with the various HBCU’s,” Concordia College Alabama director of student activities Nicholas Sturdivant said.

Ford will be giving away four prizes to the S.T.E.A.M. programs of the HBCUs that earn the most points. The STEAM initiative added the element of art and design to the science, technology and math (STEM) program.

Concordia College Alabama found out about the contest when student Sherman Williams shared the link on the college’s Facebook page.

“I was just browsing through Facebook, and I saw that someone had shared Tom Joyner’s post about it. I read up on it to see what it was about, and I saw the first four prizes… I posted it to Concordia’s page, and it just went from there,” Williams said.

The winners of the contest, which ends on Oct. 27, is determined by which HBCU is able to earn the most points before the deadline.

Earning points is as easy as sharing photos and videos “reppin’ your HBCU!” with the school’s assigned hashtag.

Photos and videos in a Ford are worth 20 points, but the logo must be visible.

The hashtag for Concordia College is #FordConcordiaAlabama.

Despite a delayed start, the Concordia student body has rapidly climbed into the top five schools.

“The instrumental part of it was advertising,” Williams said. “A lot of people were unaware of it. We didn’t start the competition until three weeks later … We were kind of the last ones to know about it. We maybe a small institution, but we are competitors.”

As of Thursday, Concordia had 3,217 points and is in fourth place behind Southwestern Christian College (18,051), Stillman College in Tuscaloosa (16,400) and North Carolina Central University (7,683).

The grand prize winner wins a #FORDHBCU homecoming takeover. The first runner-up will win $50,000.

The second place and third place finishers will receive $25,000 and $15,000 respectively.

The Concordia student body has really come together to try and push their school to the top.

Quantisha Battle, another Concordia student, went to the Moore-Stewart Ford, located on 1406 E Highland Ave, to ask if she and her fellow students could take photos with the vehicles at the dealership.

“We wanted to support them in any way we can,” Moore-Stewart Ford co-owner Barry Parker said. “It’s been fun getting to meet the different students, and seeing the young folks interested in the Ford cars trucks and SUV’s.”

The students have been going over to the dealership for the past several days to take pictures with the cars, according to Battle.

“They have been tremendous in assisting us with this event,” Sturdivant said. “They opened the trucks up for us. They started the vehicles and dropped the top on some of the convertibles. Moore-Stewart has worked with us tremendously.”

The college is doing everything it can to help as well. Next Monday during chapel, the whole campus is going to be decorated with Ford’s so that the students will have more opportunities to post pictures and earn points, according to Sturdivant.

“We’re trying so hard to get to first-place,” Battle said.

Should Concordia College Alabama win any of the prizes, Sturdivant said that the money will go towards the student government association to assist with student activities.

“It’s really a good thing,” Williams said. “Sometimes because of all the sports going on, it’s hard to get all the students in one place at one time. Every time we get a chance to take a picture or anything with a Ford, we can say ‘Come on! Let’s help the school win this prize and money!’”

The easiest way to share the posts are through Instagram and Twitter. Approved photos will be added to the contest’s photo gallery and points will be assigned to the matching hashtag. More information on voting can also be found at blackamericaweb.com/hbcuchallenge. The Tom Joyner Morning Show’s Facebook page is another place where votes can be cast.