GSN's Get Schooled 2005 'Word Slam!' Finishes With Casey Butterfield Winning a Total of $35,000 Toward College Tuition and the Title of Get Schooled 2005 Grand Champion

Second Place Winner Greg Stone Received a Pair of Roundtrip Tickets from Orbitz and Third Place Winner Bill Medina Received a $500 Barnes & Noble Gift Card

PHILADELPHIA, May 25 -- GSN's Get Schooled 2005 'Word Slam!' culminated in a grand finale on Tuesday, May 24th in Philadelphia at Independence Visitor Center. All champions from the 11-city tour traveled to Philadelphia to compete for an additional $25,000 toward college tuition, courtesy of Bank of America Student Banking.

Casey Butterfield of San Francisco, who won $10,000 toward college tuition on April 2 in San Francisco at the Sony Metreon outlasted and out-smarted her opponents during the vocabulary-based 'Word Slam!,' leading her to victory and an additional $25,000 invested in a Bank of America Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan.

In attendance at the event to present the check to Butterfield were Jen Gaiski, Vice President of Programming for Comcast; Kevin Cobb, Consumer Marketing Executive for Bank of America; Helen Dimsdale, Director of Public Affairs at NCTA; Dale Allender, Associate Executive Director, National Council of Teachers of English, and member of Cable in the Classroom's National Education Advisory Board; Susan Herbst, Dean at Temple University's College of Literature and Arts.

Casey Butterfield said, "Bank of America Student Banking, Comcast and GSN have made going to graduate school a no brainer."

"What an incredible finale, a nail biter to the very end," said Dena Kaplan, GSN Senior Vice President of Marketing. "We were thrilled to have the best and brightest compete head to head to crown Butterfield as the grand prize winner of the Get Schooled 2005 Championship." Kaplan continues, "We are proud to have created this pro-educational event and have Bank of America and Comcast as our partners. We look forward to showcasing the tour and the finale to GSN viewers in the documentary 'Word Slam!'"

"We'd like to congratulate the grand prize winner. Each year the championship round becomes more exciting," said Kathy Cannon, Bank of America Student Banking Executive. "At Bank of America, we strive to help students and parents achieve their dreams of higher education. We see our sponsorship of the Get Schooled Tour as a valuable extension of that work."

Get Schooled 2005 is in its third consecutive year, and as such, Bank of America Student Banking and GSN have contributed a total of $400,000 in tuition money to over 65 people, helping to send the winners or members of the winners' families to college. This year, GSN will allow at home viewers a taste of the fun on the road by producing a behind-the-scenes documentary entitled, "Word Slam!" which will air fourth quarter, 2005. The documentary will feature interviews with each of the winners, and the high stakes fast paced competition of the game.

Hosted by Kimberley Locke (former "American Idol" finalist and Curb recording artist), 'Word Slam!' is a live game show based on vocabulary. Throughout the day at each stop on the tour, over 75 contestants battled it out during various vocabulary word-based games.

The 11 finalists who won in their respective markets are as follows:

Albuquerque, New Mexico -- Bill Medina, 16 years old, who plans on attending the University of New Mexico.

Dallas, Texas -- Jennifer Robinson, 44 years old, who would like to go back and finish college. Robinson, followed the tour last year, but was never a finalist until this year.

Sacramento, California -- Chris Reilly, 17 years old, who will be enrolling in college in the fall.

San Francisco, California -- Casey Butterfield, 25 years old, who plans on going to Cambridge University.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Dallin Merrill, 21 years old, who is currently enrolled in Brigham Young University.

Chicago, Illinois -- Jim Wagner, 22 years old, who is currently enrolled in Northwestern University and plans on using the money for grad school.

Nashville, Tennessee -- Cary West, 23 years old, who is currently enrolled in Middle Tennessee State University.

San Antonio, Texas -- Greg Stone, 48 years old, who will be using the money for his nine year-old son's college savings.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- William Andrew Babb, 21 years old, who is currently enrolled in Virginia Commonwealth University. Babb was a finalist during last year's Get Schooled Tour in Baltimore.

Boston, Massachusetts -- Mary Ann Doering, 45 years old, who will use the money for her four-year-old daughter's college tuition. Doering is a flight attendant who had been to other stops on the tour hoping to win.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- Art Kurtz, 44 years old, plans on using the money to go back to school.

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing. The network features game shows, reality series, documentaries, alternative sports programs and casino games. As the industry leader in interactivity, GSN features over 84 hours per week of interactive programming, which allows viewers a chance to win prizes by playing along with GSN's televised games via GSN.com. Reaching 56 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN's press website at corp.gsn.com.

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships through more than 5,800 retail banking offices and 16,700 ATMs and through award-winning online banking with more than twelve million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 Small Business Administration Lender in the United States by the SBA. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 96 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 82 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

SOURCE GSN
Web Site: http://www.gsn.com