Compton High School - Free Throw

Challenge

Thanks to his son’s club basketball team, Court Crandall, WDCW’s Executive Creative Director, met a number of children from Compton who defied the negative stereotypes of this city and were bright and ambitious young men and women who simply lacked the financial support to pursue their college dreams.

Solution

Crandall created Free Throw, a competition that gave all Compton High School students with a 3.0 GPA or better the chance to win a $40,000 college scholarship. For the two weeks leading up to the ultimate competition in a packed Compton High School gymnasium, a film crew chronicled the hopes, dreams and hardships of these eight students.

Results

Not only did Free Throw gain enough funding to give away one full scholarship, but it also raised enough money to pay each of the eight finalists’ first year of tuition at their chosen college. The biggest twist of all came when contest winner Allan Guei received a full-ride to Cal State Northridge for basketball and then elected to split his $40,000 Free Throw scholarship evenly between the seven other contestants. The project was covered on every local news station, as well as by the Los Angeles Times, and a full-length documentary will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in September.