Chapman student gets entire class out of final by passing professor's social media challenge

A Chapman University marketing class is full of happy students after one of their own crushed their professor's unrealistic social media challenge, freeing them from taking their final at the end of the term.

When Adjunct Professor Matthew Prince challenged his Influencer Marketing class of 80 marketing students with the challenge of receiving at least a million views on a TikTok video in order to cancel their final exam, he was pretty certain it was unattainable

But Sylvie Bastardo, a 20-year-old sophomore, easily surpassed that goal — gaining thousands of followers in the process.

The simple three second video shows the inside of the Chapman classroom with the professor's challenge projected onto a screen which read: "TikTok Influencer Challenge - First to reach viral status wins. (Me vs. the entire class.) If you win, the final is canceled."

Overlayed with a catchy tune and the simple caption, "My professor said if our class got a TikTok to 1 million likes he would cancel the final!! Please like!!!"

Within two days of posting the video, Bastardo met her goal, much to the elation of her classmates. 

"We saw that it was up to a million views after about 48 hours, which was insane," Prince said, noting that the challenge was his way of doing something different and memorable for his students, hoping it would impact their learning experience. "They saw the challenge as motivation for them to try something new, to get out of their comfort zone, to do stuff that was in their wheelhouse — and hopefully get out of a final in the process."

At last count, the video's count continues to climb, now surpassing 5 million views. 

During their next class, Prince called his newest star pupil to the front of the lecture hall, where he informed the class that their final was indeed canceled due to her quick thinking. 

"I think people were drawn to it because who wants to take a test?" she said. "I think people were motivated to help me not have a test and everyone in my class."

The views on Bastardo's video keep climbing, at last count, it was at five million.