When Loyola student Jeremy Stewart checked his e-mail at the beginning of the fall semester he noticed something most students ignore: a contest targeting incoming freshmen.

Stewart, business freshman, began to browse the Web site, www.loyno-students.com. He discovered a contest containing trivia questions about the Loyola community. At first, Stewart began answering the questions for fun – then he became hooked.

“I started answering the questions just for fun,” Stewart said. “But then I started going on the Web site every chance I would get, like between classes in the library.”

The contest lasted about 12-14 weeks. Every week, names were posted on a leadership board. At the end of the contest, Stewart was the last man standing.

Stewart won two American Express gift cards, totaling to $300.

“I didn’t think that I had won,” Stewart said. “I was going to spend the money however they wanted me to.”

“I used about $100 dollars on Christmas gifts, and the rest I’m going to keep for myself,” he said.

The Web site, run by online networking site UPeers, can only be accessed by freshmen with a Loyola e-mail account. The university provided the e-mail addresses of all incoming freshmen to the site, which was created to help freshmen find friends and places to hang out, as well as to become more familiar with Loyola during their first year of college.

Stewart transferred this semester to the University of New Orleans. He made the change because Loyola no longer offered an education major, which he originally planned to study.

“Business was OK, but what I really wanted was a degree in education and Loyola could not offer that for me at the time,” Stewart said. “I enjoyed my time there but needed to focus on what I really wanted to do.”

Jaune Jackson can be reached at [email protected].