News and Progress

MU student fundraiser finalist on national game show

May 18, 2009

MU senior Laura Myers joined other student fundraisers and friends at the Heidelberg Restaurant in Columbia to watch her appearances on national TV.

Chalk up another Mizzou win over KU. Senior Laura Myers outsmarted competitors from Kansas and Ohio State in the quarterfinals of Jeopardy's College Championship May 5. After beating students from Vassar and Tufts in the semifinals, Myers competed in the finals May 14 and 15. She finished third in the championship game. St. Louis native Patrick Tucker, a student at Notre Dame, won first place. Second place went to Eric Betts, Eufala, Ala., a student at Emory University. 

You may have talked with this newly minted celebrity on the phone. Laura is one of 65 MU students who call alumni on behalf of the Mizzou Annual Fund.

A magazine journalism major, Myers graduated May 16. She leaves behind her work as a student caller, but not the sentiment. "I feel like it's important for alumni to give back to their university," she says. "It helps to raise the profile of the university and makes it a stronger place, and ultimately increases the value of an education here."

In all, student callers talk to 75,000 alumni and raise $850,000 for the Mizzou Annual Fund each year.

Laura raised $29,000 for her own future on Jeopardy. In preparing for the show, Myers says her journalism education has come in handy. "Whenever you write a story, it's a crash course in what you're writing about," she says. "It's helped me pick up random pieces of information."

An avid sports fan, Myers plans to use some of her Jeopardy prize to fund a trip to South Africa to watch the World Cup. "I'm also going to get an expensive pair of shoes," she says. "And I might go to graduate school."