It's part of the assignment. Our team has to solicit and receive funding from an outside party or group of individuals. We thought approaching the Bitcoin community itself would be a win-win for all involved; funders get interest paid on their loans, and we fulfill the requirement.
Would you be willing to provide the professors .edu email and name, as well as the course name? This will confirm your story and make it much more likely someone will lend to you, since they can contact your school if you don't pay the loan back.
We've been divulging that information after speaking with potential investors privately. We're only 20 Bitcoins short of our goal of 70 at this point.