USA Network And Verizon Team Up For College Tour

By Elana Goodwin on October 20, 2014

On October 16, the USA Network and Verizon revealed the seven colleges they will stop at on their Characters Unite College Tour.

The purpose of the tour is to motivate college students to use their voices and various technology to work towards solving some of the nation’s key social issues, like discrimination and dating abuse.

Photo Credit: charactersunitecollegetour.com

At each college on the tour, students will have the opportunity to create a free personalized T-shirt that says “I Won’t Stand For __,” with the students being able to stamp a word to fill in the blank, like bullying, homophobia, abuse, etc.

They can also take a picture to be uploaded to the Characters Unite online gallery and share it on social media, just as millions of other people have as part of the Characters Unite campaign to combat any and all forms of discrimination and hate.

Students will also be able to find out more about loveisrespect, a program geared towards empowering young adults to prevent and end abusive relationships, sponsored by the National Domestic Violence hotline and Break the Cycle. They can also join Verizon’s HopeLine program in speaking out against domestic violence (DV).

At each stop on the tour, Verizon will provide HopeLine collection containers so participants can donate cell phones and accessories they no longer use and which Verizon will refurbish and donate to local DV organizations to give to DV victims.

Participants will also be able to post messages of hope to DV survivors through HopeLine’s Because Voices Have Power project using #VoicesHavePower.

The Characters Unite College tour will kick off on Monday, October 20, at Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio, with subsequent stops as follows:

  • Wednesday, October 22: Howard University in Washington D.C.
  • Thursday, October 23: University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland
  • Tuesday, October 28: Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina
  • Thursday, October 30: Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkson, Georgia
  • Thursday, November 6: University of Texas in Austin, Texas
  • Wednesday, November 12: University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico

After a September competition which asked students to submit their college or university to the Characters Unite College Tour contest for a chance to be part of the tour, the University of Maryland was named the winner. Besides being part of the tour, the College Park campus of UMD will also get a visit from a USA network star.

Characters Unite is the USA Network’s award-winning public service program that was created to confront social injustices and societal divides while advocating acceptance both online and in communities across the U.S.

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