If you aspire to fame a la American Idol, here's your chance to show off your talent and win scholarship money while you're at it. Education Connection is sponsoring an online video competition with awesome prizes (from free tuition money and cold, hard cash to an Amazon Kindle). To be eligible, you must be 18 or over and a legal U.S. citizen.

The contest gives students the chance to be creative, whether that means "shoot[ing] a documentary about why a college degree is important" or "do[ing] a funny take on Education Connection jingles". (Personally, we think the latter sounds way more entertaining!) Just keep the video under a minute and don't use copyrighted content. Ambitious contest entrants can even rewrite the jingle lyrics and rerecord with their own. If you've been belting it out in the shower, this is a great opportunity to display your singing chops.

But the contest isn't just about video editing expertise and on-screen charisma! The winner is ultimately decided by both a panel of judges and public voting, just like American Idol. That means you need to mobilize your friends and family to vote for you everyday. You can use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace to drum up support and keep up the momentum. To check out the competition, here are some of the entries submitted thus far.

The deadline is July 31st so time is quickly running out. Enter now and show Education Connection that you can hold your own next to even the greatest music video talent.