By: Annie Birnberg, Gem Díaz Velazquéz & Maddy White
The Bradley University Homecoming Pageant 2018 took place on Wednesday, September 26th in the Student Center Ballroom. The Homecoming Pageant was where the contestants can show their school spirit and present to the other students why they should be the King or Queen for the 2018-2019 academic school year.
The Activities Council at Bradley University, known as ACBU, hosted the Bradley University 2018 Homecoming Week, which included the Pageant. The MC for the night was Renee Charles, who is in charge of Public Relations for Bradley University. The judges were Lieutenant Savage, Donna Carr Roberts and David Trillizio.
The Homecoming King Contestants for this year were Austin Shone, Jamal Stevenson, Claudio DeBon, Jake Buchnat and Pierre Paul. The Homecoming Queen Contestants Mikki Tran, Lizzie Young, Megan Ramsden, Camryn Kirkham and Claire Sullivan. The portions of the Homecoming Pageant that the contestants had to participate in were the group synchronized dance, their individual talents, their individual school spirit competition and fish bowl questions that were unknown to them.
These contestants listed previously are all very talented in their own and unique way. They showed a ton of school spirit and showed us how Bradley University is their home away from home. For the king contestants: Shone sang “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” while his friend played the guitar. Stevenson rapped. DeBon showed off his mix martial art moves. Buchnat sang the song that listed all of the countries around the world. Paul sang songs in an aca-pella type format that he gathered from the audience while up on stage. For the queen contestants: Tran presented her poem she wrote in regards to her love and undying support for Bradley University. Young presented her slam poetry that she wrote about when she was younger. Ramsden taught the audience how to make some guacamole and then she passed out some pre-made guacamole and chips. Kirkham show the audience how to do a chemical reaction by having an audience member help her. Sullivan did some improv and made the audience laugh in more ways than one.
Some of the fish bowl questions, included: What would you do with a million dollars? What’s your favorite thing about going to Bradley University?
Each contestant had fans supporting them within the audience section. Some of the fans held handmade signs with the contestants name or with their fun and creative hashtag they used. This goes to show how their friends/fans support them and truly care about them.
Towards the end of the night, Charles asked the members of the audience to download the B-Involved app. However, there was technical difficulties with the app and downloading it. This lead to Charles having to ask students to log in to their Facebook accounts to vote for the contestants of their choosing via the link that was posted. This process took a while as ACBU had to tally up the votes. After ACBU tallied up the votes that night, they sent out a link the next morning for all Bradley University students to click on. This way they can get a more diverse set of answers and have a better opportunity to reach all students.
Both of the winners for the Homecoming Pageant win a scholarship of $500.00 towards their tuition. All in all, the Homecoming Week goes to show all Bradley University students and faculty come together to show school pride.
Please be sure to check out our link to the video for the Homecoming Pageant 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmlMtQsG6kQ.