Central Texas Students Earn Opportunity to Attend Michelle Obama’s SXSW Speech

The Austin Chamber of Commerce has come up with a new way to get local high school students to apply for financial aid for college — give them a chance to see First Lady Michelle Obama speak at SXSW, and possibly meet her. After launching the contest, students from 13 Central Texas school districts had until 5pm on March 14 to fill out their Free Application for Financial Aid (FAFSA), and as of last night, 80 students had been selected, KXAN reports. It’s a brilliant twist on cause marketing — get students to a panel about education (among other things) by having them invest efforts into furthering their education.

Obama’s keynote will focus on the “Let Girls Learn” initiative that addresses global education issues for young women. As of yesterday SXSW added guests Missy Elliott, Sophia Bush, and others to the panel discussion which can be live streamed from Austin.com tomorrow.