COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A local student at Ohio State was one of six awarded a $100,000 scholarship in the Dr Pepper tuition giveaway.

Gavin White, a junior, won the money Dec. 2 in a halftime contest at the Big 12 conference game in Arlington, Texas. The finalists for the tuition giveaway competed to see who could throw the most footballs into an oversized Dr Pepper can in 30 seconds.

“It’s unbelievable and so many answered prayers,” White said. “It’s hard to explain.”

White applied for the contest by submitting a 60-second video on why he deserved the tuition, talked about his goals and how the money would impact his life. Over a month later, White received the call that he was chosen to compete in the Big 12 game for the $100,000.

“I was thrilled. It was so many dreams came true with that call,” said White. “Because I’m a college football fan, so the whole Dr Pepper thing is something I’ve grown up watching, and the opportunity to potentially pay for school alongside that is unbelievable.”

During the contest, White and another finalist competed in a double tiebreaker. A scoring issue led to an inaccurate reading of who won. That’s when Dr Pepper awarded both White and the other participant $100,000 in tuition.

“On the field I thought I had lost, but it turns out that people online realized there was a counting error,” said White. “It was just a huge blessing that they went out of the way to fix that.”

After graduation, White said he plans to continue his education in graduate school to pursue a master’s degree. White is majoring in atmospheric science, and his dream is to become a meteorologist.

“Very few people can say that they are able to graduate debt-free, and thankfully because of this, I will be one of those very few people that will be able to say that,” said White. “It opens up other opportunities I wouldn’t have been able to pursue had I not won this.”