NMU Goes Tobacco-Free
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Hot Diversity Acts for 2015
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No Place For Hate
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Carlos Santana
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It’s fresh air and a clean start for NMU as they get the aid of Patrick Reynolds for a Tobacco-Free Campus. A complete collection of our 18 top choices of exciting diversity acts for 2015 programming on your campus.
An unlikely pairing of two completely different people with extreme backgrounds serves to accentuate how we all can change for the better.
Kiara Kabukuru TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY
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A heart-wrenching story and an enduring perspective leads a model back into the limelight.
The unlikely success of a boy from humble beginnings in Mexico yields amazing results.
IT’S ALL INSIDE
From the Publisher Real Life NMU Becomes Tobacco-Free Spanky
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Hot Diversity Acts for 2015 No Place For Hate Artist Reports Carlos Santana
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RANDOM THOUGHTS & OTHER MINDLESS DRIBBLE
Wild Abandonment...
I went to my high school class reunion for the first time in 45 years this past Saturday. Out of the several hundred there, I maybe recognized three or four people. But the re-union organizers were smart. They gave us name tags that hung around our necks with a photo of our high school senior pictures next to our name. So when you met someone you grabbed their name tag to see who they were before you started reminiscing. I never went to a previous high school reunion before and I have never been to a college union because there were thousands of people in my college class and I knew only a handful. But to my surprise, I enjoyed the high school reunion because everyone knew everyone else even though we might not know their physical appearance. My high school years were a wild and crazy time
where we were all spreading our wings, had no real responsibilities, and were trying to decide what to do with the rest of our lives. They were the most memorable times of my life and even though there was a lot of craziness and stupidity to follow, it was a defining moment of what I might turn out to be.
Even though high school friends for many of us are distant memories, some will be in our hearts and minds for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately in this case, the “In memorial book” we received was a lot thicker than the “attendee book”. Now, not all the people who did not attend were dead. They were scattered all across the country. Just so you know, the memorial book included pictures and obituaries of teachers and students during our high school days. But three of our coaches were in attendance as well as several teachers and they were alive and kicking
and in pretty good health. In fact several of the coaches looked about the same as when we were in high school (a pretty good reason to stay in shape and live a clean life).
For most of you reading this, this a far future event in your lives if you make it this far- and I sincerely hope that you do. But for me it was a time of reflection for people whose company I did enjoy and surely did love as brothers and sisters.
Life changes after high school and even more after college. You will all do crazy, stupid things. It is inevitable, but don’t let them be your defining moments but fun moments you managed to live through and helped you become more responsible individuals, children of your parents and eventually even mothers and fathers yourself.
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BY ELAINE PASQUA
Tipping the Scale: Is Pot Safe Because It’s Legal?
Over the past two years campuses have seen a considerable increase in marijuana use. Many are requesting that I address it in my program. I now ask students if they think that marijuana is safe because it’s legal in Colorado and numerous states passed medical marijuana laws. Most respond that it is.
Recreational pot is a lot stronger than it was 20 years ago. It has 300 percent more THC and is now considered a gateway drug. Because it is stronger it goes to the brain faster, increasing the reward effect with an increasing likelihood of addiction. Nine percent of people who smoke pot become physically addicted to it.
The brain develops its own natural cannabidiol, but chronic users stop secreting it. They need to smoke just to feel normal, not lousy. Cannabidiol helps us transition into a sleepy state. When the brain is depleted of it the person can't sleep. A friend quit after many years of daily use and couldn’t sleep for months. It took some time for his brain to start to secrete it again.
What they don't realize is that the pot grown for medicinal purposes is different than that for recreational use. The growers specifically develop a plant that has very little THC, the active ingredient which makes a person high. Instead it is high in CBD or cannabidiol which provides the medicinal benefits such as decreasing seizures, reducing pain, reducing nausea and vomiting, and increasing appetites in those with wasting syndrome.
Medical marijuana can be smoked or is available in a pill which reduces the risks that come with smoking. One of the biggest differences between medicinal marijuana and recreational is the source. The medicinal is of higher and consistent quality because it is grown to specific standards. What is purchased on the street is inconsistent and could be laced with other drugs or sprayed with pesticides.
Like recreational marijuana, medical also has negative side effects. In the case of terminally and seriously ill patients the short-term benefits outweigh the risks. Many people are smoking to self-medicate. This occurs when someone uses it for therapeutic purposes such as insomnia or depression without professional care.
MRI's of regular users show a shrinking of the hippocampus, the area of the brain that controls memory. THC suppresses the activity of the hippocampal cells, called neurons, below the level necessary to develop memory formation. These people have difficulty forming and retrieving memory. As we age we lose neurons in the hippocampus; older people struggle with memory loss. Chronic THC exposure speeds up that process. Scientists found that young rats exposed to THC daily for eight months showed the same hippocampal cell loss as rats twice their age.
There is also a shrinking of the white matter of the brain. The white matter helps the brain communicate from one area to another. College students who smoke pot regularly show impaired skills re-
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lated to attention, memory, and learning 24 hours after their last use. We also see deficits in math and verbal retrieval.
The smoke from pot contains the same amount of smoke and tar as cigarettes. People who smoke pot are actually exposed to more smoke and tar because they hold the smoke in longer and there are no filters.
As THC content of marijuana increases, so does its potential to cause adverse effects such as paranoia, anxiety and panic attacks, hallucinations, erratic mood swings, and aggressive behavior.
My greatest concern is amotivational syndrome. Pot reduces dopamine which is linked to reward driven behavior like achieving goals. A student I know had a 4.0 GPA in high school. He attended a prestigious university and was thriving in a rigorous program. His use of pot increased, by his junior year his grades tanked. By senior year he was so wasted he could not get it together to drop his classes. He is saddled with incredible debt and has nothing to show for it.
We talked a lot and I advised him to stop smoking. One day he called me, we took a hike. He told me that he quit smoking two weeks prior. The life was back in his voice, he had energy again; in fact he was getting up at five o'clock every morning to jog.
He shared that students need to reflect on their lives and compare how they functioned before they used pot regularly, versus after. Is it helping them, or getting in the way of accomplishing what they need to achieve their daily and long-term goals? What kind of rituals and friendships have developed because of pot? Looking back he realized that the regular use of pot has interfered with his daily activities and set him back quite a few years.
Questions on college life? Email me at elaine@elainepasqua.com
www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
The anti-tobacco movement is one that has taken hold in more and more communities across the U.S. and as their own nebulous little communities, college campuses are no different. The benefits are numerous. Perhaps the most significant and obvious is the message on the health and wellness side it sends to the members of the campus community who do use tobacco, but the environment also becomes more pleasant for those who don’t. Clouds of smoke, cigarette butts and ashes, dip cups and bottles and splatters on the sidewalk are no more. Of course there is always some resistance to this sort of change, but most campuses seem to be finding these transitions both smooth and beneficial. Northern Michigan University is one of those campuses. Two of their staff members, Barbara 8, CAMpUS ACTIvITIES MAGAzINE®, DIvERSITY ISSUE 2014
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Coleman, Associate Professor, Management of Health and Fitness and Cindy Paavola, Director of Communications and Marketing, sit down to speak with Campus Activities Magazine about their transition, how it came about and who helped them facilitate the shift.
Cindy is where this story starts, and was at the hub of bringing this project together on the NMU campus. “This is actually a conversation that has been going on here on campus off and on for close to 20 years. There have been students and student groups (along with some faculty and staff) all along the way who have really promoted the idea of being smoke free or tobacco free. At the time they were trying to get the idea across though, the campus just wasn’t really ready for that big of a change.” www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
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The office of president changed over, the new interim president formed a committee and asked Cindy to be the chair. "The charge was to do as much research as we could from every possible angle to see what we thought the impact would be, either positive or negative, if the campus where to go smoke free or tobacco free. We were to then bring a recommendation to him. If it were to make a change, he committed to bring it to the board of trustees."
PATRICK REYNOLDS
The last time it was considered was around 2006 and the President at the time was strongly investigating the possibility. “There were many conversations with students and university forums on the topic. We did surveys and research but it was pretty clear from the documentation of the research at the time that the opinion was still split pretty close to a 50/50 split.”
Fast forward almost 10 years and the plane has shifted. “So many more universities and colleges around the country have gone this way,” she says. “We are by no means the trendsetters. We are following the crowd here now, so that made the transition easier.” Included in the list of campuses going to-
bacco free were two schools close to NMU. “Two universities here in the upper peninsula made the move. One was Michigan Technological University in Houghton and the other was Finlandia University in Hancock. We also had a community college in the area do it as well. So that gave us a private university, a public university closer to our size and a community college to base our direction from. We had already started the conversation again. Several student groups had brought it up in the last couple of years. It seemed like the time to reconsider the issue."
Cindy and her team did just that, spending most of an academic year doing a lot of web research, looking into what other schools their size had done and talking to the population on campus. "We had over wide variety of people on the committee from our public safety office, our dean of students office, our health promotions office and other faculty members like Barbara Coleman, who teaches in community health and is someone who is been on our campus for a long time. She has been a part of that ongoing conversation about going smoke free and tobacco free. We had a nonsmoking student and smoking student on the committee. We had people from our business office, and our finance office. We really tried to get a wide and broad scope of the people on our campus to serve on this committee. In addition to that we asked everyone on the committee to look at this issue from their perspective so we can get the most diverse set of opinions possible in moving forward. When it came to moving forward, Barb really jumped in the driver's seat and got to figuring out just how to present this to the students. "When we were trying to figure out how to approach the presentation to the students, we came upon the idea of bringing in a high-profile speaker. This would be someone with some name recognition or appeal that would draw the students in, outside of them coming strictly for a program about banning tobacco on campus. We were sitting around in the health promotions office, and one of our staffers said he had heard the
Northern Michigan Continues On Page 36
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“Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You. Of course in some situations that is impossible. But crushing someone’s emotions without warning or discussion leaves a deep wound that takes some time to heal. I know.
Three days ago I discovered the woman I’ve dated for years is involved with another man. It was in that very instant I learned that sometimes the person you would take a bullet for is the person behind the gun.
By Steven Kent McFarlin (AKA Spanky)
Those are the words of Homer Simpson. I suppose using a quote from a cartoon character as a title may seem a little nutty. In fact, if you did not think I was crazy before reading this column, let me remove all doubt. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been in a total state of temporary insanity for the past three days. My madness made it impossible to eat, sleep, listen to music, or watch TV. This lunacy was caused by a problem with my heart. It was broken.
I suspect that by the time you have reached your college years you have probably experienced the pain of breaking up with someone. I have been on both sides, being the one that decides to leave and being the one that got left behind. It is no fun for either, but far more emotionally devastating being the one that gets dumped. In a perfect world all break ups would be the result of a mutual decision, but those situations are rare.
Although I could be wrong, I believe in the occasions I was the one that chose to split I handled it as gently as possible, as witnessed by my being able to salvage the friendship almost every time. My advice to anyone in a relationship that is not working out would be that before you put an end to it, try to address the issues with the person to see if some compromise can be reached. www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
I am filled with rage, however not all of my anger is directed at her. I am trying to avoid beating myself up too much, but I am a bit mad I didn't see this coming, and for dwelling on this continuously since it happened; thoughts of her ran on a loop in my head 24-7. I’d tell myself "Okay, enough already. Let it go. Move on." Then a few minutes later I am checking the mail to see if she has written. Then I had a very funny moment that served as a message from the Universe that it is time to drop these thoughts like a hot piece of coal.
I had started obsessing about who the new guy is, curious if I had met him, and also thinking if I had more info on him I could better judge the chances of their relationship lasting (stupid, I know). So I went to Facebook (even stupider, I know) to check for recently added friends. Only one single male showed up, so I checked out the website for his real estate agency and found a video of a slide show his family had put together for his birthday party. It was over 15 minutes long. It started with childhood pictures, then on to him as an adult. What I saw was one of the most handsome men I've ever seen! He is a former professional male model, and all those photos of him looking perfect had me beside myself. Then it went into a section titled "Toys" which had pictures of his super expensive cars, motorcycles, airplanes, etc. Then a section called "Homes" that had his mansions and mountain cabins. Then a section called "Spirituality" that had pictures of him studying Buddhism in India (She leans toward Buddhist principles and has statues of the Buddha and books in her home. She even paid big bucks to go see the Dalai Lama). I was thinking “Holy crap! This man is her dream date in every way!” To say I was feeling pretty poorly about myself in comparison would be an understatement. Then after watching 14 minutes of this torture (actually much longer because I paused and rewound so much) it went to a section called
"Friends" that had photos of him in bed with other men. In that moment my tears of sorrow turned to tears of laughter, laughing at myself for doing this silly misguided detective work to begin with.
When I was able to see the foolishness of continuing to think about my ex, fondly or otherwise, the dark clouds of my madness began to lift. That video was such a big turning point in my healing if I ever run into that guy I'll be tempted to give him a hug.
My advice to anyone that just got dumped: - Stay the hell off social media. - Stay on the high road and avoid the temptation to say and do hurtful things to your ex. Why give them any reasons to be happy they dumped you? The best revenge is to live a happy life and hope that person regrets they are not part of it. - Try to find any sliver of good your break up will provide, such as you will probably lose a lot of weight because you lost your appetite. It helps to focus on any aspect of your ex that you did not like and rejoice you will no longer have to put up with. - Don’t watch any movies that have happy couples. I find that extremely violent films work best for me. After his divorce, a friend of mine liked to watch a video of his wedding backwards to when he was a single man walking out of a church. - When listening to music only pick tunes you and your ex never listened to together. Instrumentals are best because a lyric from a song can touch you in unexpected ways that create waves of tears.
- Get a dog. Their unconditional love will remind you that life is worth living and you will love again. - Go love again. Remember the wise words of Margaret Fuller, “It seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk in armor.” Steven Kent McFarlin (AKA “Spanky”) has been described by the press as a “campus entertainment icon.” He offers two great events at one great low price, and has been voted “Campus Comic of the Year” (LaffGuru.com) and the “Campus Performer of the Year” (TalkingAboutMyGeneration.com). His credits include over fifty TV appearances, including: Showtime, Good Morning America, and The Late Show. He is represented by GP Entertainment.
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TOP DIVERSITY C
BRUCE GEORGE
Bruce George is the co-founder of Def Poetry Jam and an inspiration to youth all across the country and the world. He is an activist, author and inspires residency events. His topic involves the Politics of Art, from The Classics to Hip Hop.
Admire Presentations 845-365-3436
ANTHONY TRUCKS
Anthony Trucks: You’re worthless. This is what the world told Anthony growing up in foster care before he decided to be the exception to the rule. How he did it is the amazing part. He applied a unique set of skills to become what no one believed he could be. Anthony is a former NFL player, runs a successful gym business, trains professional athletes, is an international speaker, is author of Chapter 6 of The Definitive Guide to Youth Athletic Strength, Conditioning & Performance, was featured in the Wall Street Journal, and is a father to three amazing kids.
Kirkland Productions booking@kirklandproductions.com 866.769.9037
KELLY BELL BAND
"Voted the Best Blues Band in the Mid Atlantic Region 12 years in a row, the Kelly Bell Band from Baltimore, Maryland is “among the most genre-expanding acts on today’s blues scene. Who else can combine elements of hip-hop, funk, and blues-electrified here, Delta there, horn driven elsewhere- and still manage to sound sincere? A forward view of the way blues is transitioning in today’s scene…Bell’s an honest poet and an outstanding singer with lots to say. ” Blues Revue Magazine.
Degy Entertainment Ari Nisman, ari@degy.com www.kellybellband.com
CHOICES FOR 2015
BOB DAWSON
New to the music industry, Breaking The Rules® performing arts program will get you an A in the Music Appreciation and win over the person you are trying to impress. Lively dialogue, great playing--you might want to look at the site. It’s artistic “nuts and bolts.” www.breakingtherules.com
Contact Agent: Christine Prendergast Artistic Director, for Bob Dawson “Breaking The Rules” christine@breakingtherules.com (917) 612-0349
DANIEL TRUST
DIVERSITY UNIVERSITY
Cuttting Edge Entertainment 888-221-6538.
Contemporary Issues Agency 800-843-2179 www.CIAspeakers.com info@CIAspeakers.com
Daniel Trust is a Rwandan Genocide Survivor, Youth Motivational Speaker and Human Rights Advocate. His survival story of the Rwandan Genocide and coming out story are experiences students and educators across the country will not soon forget. Daniel Trust became an orphan at age 5 in 1994 when he witnessed the killing of his mother, lost his father and two sisters during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that killed approximately 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Diversity University: 27 year old Monti Washington and 26 year old Julia Garcia are two of the most talented and dynamic speakers of our time, and not to mention, relatable. They cover all the layers of diversity, including gender, race, sexuality, physical disabilities, socioeconomic, and more. Through slam poetry and skits, there has never been a more powerful team of young speakers who can connect with and inspire your students.
TOP DIVERSITY C
CAROL STERN LaROSA
President of UNICEF and former Director Of The ANTI DEFAMATION LEAGUE, Carol embtaces the leadership of women in an ever changing world. Discover empowerment as she explains how to guide today’s young women toward a path of success.
Admire Presentations 845-365-3436
JOHN CORVIN
RADIO DRIVE BY
Kirkland Productions booking@kirklandrpoductions.com 866.769.9037
Degy Entertainment Ari Nisman: ari@degy.com 732-818-9600 Jeff Hyman: jeff@degy.com 217-359-4243
John Corvin, a.k.a “The Gay Moralist,” is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor. For over 20 years he has traveled the country to speak at over 200 campuses on sexuality, ethics, and marriage. Combining philosophical rigor with sensitivity and humor, he challenges all sides of the debate to rethink easy assumptions. In addition to sexual ethics, LEGIT rights and the culture wars, his research interests include business ethics and the existence of God. John Corvin is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Formed in 2010, RadioDriveBy has found success in creating memorable music and gathering a loyal fanbase worldwide. The Arizona trio has hit #1 on major radio stations, toured the US and internationally, and just released their new EP “AFTERGLOW” – containing five new tracks and their biggest single, “Go All Night.” Links: http://www.Facebook.com/radiodriveby http://www.Twitter.com/radiodriveby http://www.Soundcloud.com/radiodriveby http://www.YouTube.com/radiodrivebymedia
HOICES FOR 2015
STEVIE VAN TRAN
Stevie Van Tran is an attorney, published author, and speaker whose scholarship focuses on the intersection of diversity litigation and social issues in the transgender community. Stevie received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Hofstra University School of Law, where she was a member of the LGBT Rights Fellowship — the only program in the nation that trains attorneys on LGBT legal and policy matters as a centerpiece of their legal education.. She has experience working for a federal judge, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Kirkland Productions booking@kirklandproductions.com 866.769.9037
MICHAEL GERSHE
STRANGE LIKE ME
Dolly raised two white Jewish children as her own flesh and blood. This diversity program is about how Michael was raised in both a white Jewish family and a black Jamaican family. His incredible sense of humor got him through the tough times when exposed to discrimination, racism, and bullying.
Contact High Impact Training at 320.259.8222 or visit www.HighImpactTraining.net
Even though a drunk driver killed his mother when he was an infant, Michael did have an incredible mother figure in his life, a Jamaican woman who stepped in and raised Michael and his brother as her own.
G.G. Greg Agency (440) 266-1732 www.gggreg.com
Strange Like Me presented by GTC Dramatic Dialogues is an interactive program on racism, sexism and homophobia especially for college students. Strange Like Me was developed to teach College students tolerance in an ever-changing diverse environment.
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ANTHONY & FRIENDS
Anthony Anderson, the star of the new hit comedy “Black-Ish” on ABC and “Eating America” on the Food Network, is now available for colleges. His performance on Law & Order earned him his fourth consecutive NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for the 2010 season. Over the years, he has displayed his bountiful talent in the DreamWorks’ blockbuster Transformers, directed by Michael Bay; as well as in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning feature, The Departed, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson.
UTA: United Talent Agency NYC (212) 659-2600 Beverly Hills (310) 273-6700
BILL MILLER
Native American recording artist Bill Miller is a three-time Grammy winner and a show-stopping performer. Through displays of superior musicianship, Bill has the ability to pull audiences into an educationally spiritual journey. He’s recently featured on the title track on Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, a tribute to the iconic release in 1964. Wally’s World of Entertainment wally@houseofwally.com (615) 824-8453
FRANK MEEINK
Author, Autobiography of a Former Skinhead, this is a presentation that should not be missed as it delves into a cult underground and how Frank emerged.
Frank Meeink gives students that raw telling of his descent into America’s Nazi underground and his ultimate triumph over hatred and addiction.
Admire Presentations 845-365-3436
CHOICES FOR 2015
BLACK JEW DIALOGS
The 2013/14 Campus Activities Magazine & APCA “Best Diversity Program in America,” this two person multimedia comedy uses sketches, video, and audience participation to help students and institutions realize the differences that we often focus on are not the ones that matter the most. The show is followed by a discussion which allows the audience to explore the issues that show brings up and also share their own experiences and insights about campus life.
Bass Schuler Entertainment info@bass-schuler.com (773) 481-2600
LACIE ROOP
As a queer identified person from the South, Lacey Roop naturally occupies a certain diversity within the spoken word world. Her work not only deals with the intersectionality of sexuality and gender, but it also explores topics such as: wonder, hope, and home.
Neon Entertainment (800) 993-NEON info@neon-entertainment.com
KEENAN THOMPSON
Kenan has been making people laugh ever since he was a school boy impersonating Bill Cosby. Since then he has spent nearly half his life entertaining people from wacky sitcom antics on Nickelodeon to grown up gags on Saturday Night Live to a real-life portrayal of cartoon biggie Fat Albert. Now in his eleventh season on Saturday Night Live, Kenan is perhaps best known for his standout impressions of Reverend Al Sharpton, Charles Barkley, Reba McEntire and Whoopi Goldberg. He made his television debut as a member of Nickelodeon's all-kid sketch comedy series All That and then went on to star in his own spin-off show Kenan and Kel.
UTA: United Talent Agency NYC (212) 659-2600 Beverly Hills (310) 273-6700
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Every now and then, one gets the journalistic pleasure of covering a truly inspiring story. Kiara Kabukuru is one of them. The series of fantastically extreme reversals of fortune for this intelligent and articulate woman have been dramatic. It is a life that has been filled with diversity and overcoming adversity and as such, we couldn’t think of a better fit for our annual Diversity Issue cover. She shares her story with the readers of Campus Activities Magazine, as she does at campuses across the nation. She also imparts some of the message she brings to students, many (if not most) of whom will identify with her journey in some way.
Born in Uganda, as a child Kiara initially led a fairly comfortable (if not privileged) life. However, she was a child that came into the world in the very midst of the reign of Idi Amin, a dictator that spared no measure in retaining his position. This is a person who consistently makes top 10 lists for the most brutal dictators in history and is justly associated with the term genocide, accredited with the maswww.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
sacre of 300,000 civilians. Considering Kiara’s father, the “Donald Trump Of Kampala” had taken to funding revolutionaries against the regime, her family was in an incredibly precarious position. “I was born in the city of Kampala, but my family were village people from the rural area,” Kiara says. “My dad ended up becoming a really huge entrepreneur in Kampala in the 1970’s and started funding rebel groups. It was a crazy place at the time, with coups and political parties being overthrown constantly. The guy that he was backing looked like he was going to get into office and stabilize the country, so my father thought he was betting on the right horse, so to speak.”
That didn’t happen in time to help Kiara’s family, though history would later prove her father right. “When Yoweri Museveni came into power, he did stabilize the country, and he continues to as President today. At a certain point though he was exiled and they hunted down anyone who had certain political alignments. You either escaped, or were killed. Luckily
we escaped, thanks to the help of some of my father’s international friends.”
The family didn’t make it out unscathed. “My father’s brother and many, many other people were killed,” she says. Running and hiding were the first six years of her life, but surprisingly she says she remained fairly happy and well-adjusted. “We were still in a kind of bubble. We were very well taken care of, but outside there were dead bodies about and we’d sometimes have to just leave in the middle of the night. But at that age, it was almost kind of fun and exciting. Or at least it was normalized, and was as fun and exciting as any other 6 year old’s activities. I didn’t take it all in and consider the wider ramifications and consequences of the situation we were in.” When it was time to make their exit, they didn’t all just go in the family station wagon to the airport. “When we did finally get to leave, my parents left first without contact with us. We thought they were dead. My dad’s
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friend from Los Angeles came to Uganda to help us, but we had to hide out in Kenya for about 18 months. We discovered that our parents had made it out, but during that time we only had phone contact with them.”
They finally made it to the U.S. when Kiara was 6 years old, in 1981. “Before we came we didn’t really even know what Los Angeles or even the Unites States of America were. It was all like a big adventure then. Once the day came that we flew here, it was quite a shock. I had spent my entire life in Uganda, with its heat, weather, colors, music, food, dance and of course the war. It is just a completely different atmosphere than say, landing in Heathrow Airport where there is no sun and no sky. The red earth I am used to is covered with cement. It felt like being on a different planet and it was hard as a child to understand how this could be a good thing.”
That was just the beginning of the culture shock and I’m sure most readers can already see the implications of how well qualified Kiara is to speak on the topics of diversity. “Things like seeing the first white person ever in real life were, for me, incredible. I must have seen white people before, but what I remember were many Indian people and of course Ugandans. When I saw a woman with long blond hair and brown tights, I thought she was multicolored. I literally had to walk up to her to understand what was going on. It was an entirely new world that I couldn’t have possibly imagined. To then come to Los Angeles and try to take in the size of this city was immense. I remember getting off the plane and looking out over what seemed to be an ocean of cars and lights.”
This was all before tackling the little things like starting school, and learn-
ing a language she had never before spoken. “There were four of us kids and we had to learn English right away. We had to take cross town buses, go to school and completely immerse ourselves in the culture all at once.” Stranger in a strange land couldn’t be a more apt description.
The situation wasn’t exactly ideal for any of them, least of all her parents. Along with their father losing his entire fortune by the time they settled, they were highly wary of the overall effect the move would have on their children. “This wasn’t their plan, so they were very protective of us insofar as American culture. It was almost like they were trying to raise us as if we were still in Uganda.” Perhaps a less jet set place than L.A. would have made her parents more comfortable, but their connection to the U.S. was in L.A. which features a significant Ugandan community as well. “My father had a friend in Los Angeles and in the United States, and was only aware of two considerable Ugandan communities at the time, one in Mississippi and the other in L.A. He had a really good friend who had moved to Los Angeles and offered to help us out. That same friend also stole all the money my father had managed to transfer out, but at least we made it.”
Kiara went from a life of privilege to one of struggle and sacrifice. “Here is a guy who went from being the Donald Trump of Kampala to pushing grocery carts and doing anything he could to get money to feed our family. my parents were living on nothing for a while, literally not having enough food to eat. My dad had a full-on nervous breakdown and has never really been the same since that happened. It was tough.”
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There was a community church who helped them get their papers in order and employed, Kiara’s father was hired as an accountant for Paramount Pictures and gradually the family adapted and shifted into a more stable lifestyle. “We were pretty much okay after that.” Things went from good to very bad and back to good for Kiara, and they were about to get great. But, that’s not to say she didn’t still deal with her own set of struggles, some that continued to develop her keenness on the topics of diversity. “In school, we were definitely different. We were ‘The Africans’ and people used to call us all sorts of awful names like ‘African booty scratcher’ and everyone had to tell us that Africans were diseased, we don’t have just foreheads we have eightheads, we just looked different. We dressed differently, we acted differently.” The interesting thing is Kiara didn’t experience the typical incarnation of racism. She, like many mixed race children, found herself on the outside of any one group. “What was interesting to me is that the African Americans were actually meaner to us than Caucasians or Asians or anyone else.” Kiara went through an awkward gangly phase as a young girl, and if professional model were a career path you told her she would walk, she would’ve laughed. “I started praying that I could look like my mother, because she was so beautiful and I was kind of awkward and small. Somehow it happened. It seemed like within a year I went from the awkward girl with braces and bad skin to someone approaching me about modeling.” At about 15, Kiara bloomed and everything changed. “Everyone www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
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started complimenting me and saying I should be a model. I was really interested in fashion and clothes, even making some of my own. I looked at magazines, but I had no idea how people got there.” Then a chance meeting, like so many great discoveries, took place and a future modeling star was born. “I was 17 at that point and a photographer approached me at a mall. He told me I should really be a model and that he would like to take pictures of me. At that point I had my mind set on being a teacher so I kind of shrugged it off but took his card anyway.”
Events conspired to push Kiara in that direction. “That same week I lost my job caring for small children at my church. My mom encouraged me to call the photographer and we ended up talking for a while and shooting some photographs. He built a whole portfolio for me and started sending them out to agencies around Los Angeles.”
The initial response wasn’t promising. “Everybody said no except for one person because I am smaller and at that time (pre Kate Moss), almost all models (runway especially) were 5’10” plus.” Despite that, she got some interest and was booked for a job in New York for Levi’s Jeans. “I actually had an offer on the table for a 5 year contract with a television show in Los Angeles when the call came in about the New York gig. In my heart I knew I wanted to travel and this was exciting, it was my chance. My parents were so over-protective and I always had this vision of traveling the world. For me it was more important to go and experience this than to secure the 5year contract in Los Angeles.”
Kiara moved to New York on her 18th birthday and was soon sent to Europe for a week. “I hadn’t flown out of the country since I had flown in from Uganda, but I jumped on the plane with 2 changes of clothes, an address and no one to pick me up in Paris. I don’t speak any French but luckily I got to the agency and spent the next two years in Europe doing the rounds between Paris and London.”
It took a few years and being broke for a bit, but her luck finally got her there. “I was starting to get discouraged and had run out of money. Essentially I had made the decision to give myself another six months. If nothing happened in that time, I would pack my things up and go home and go to college to become a teacher. Luckily, everything happened in that six months.” She was booked for Gucci, the cover of Vogue, a contract with L’Oreal and more. This roller coaster of success went on for about three years from 1997 to 2000 when yet another cruel reversal of fortunes befell Kiara. She went from living life in a dream to a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
“My accident was in 2000. I was just about to sign a huge CoverGirl contract THAT week when I was hit by a truck on my bicycle in New York.” We’ll spare you the gruesome details, but the physical damage from being struck and dragged was brutal, and especially devastating for someone who’s current career relied so heavily on her appearance. “My teeth were very badly damaged but I didn’t have a lot of broken bones. At the beginning, my skin was gone, but once I healed you couldn’t really see the physical damage. It did really send me into a long, painful, healing part of my life where I was figuring out what was really important to me.”
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Like dwelling not on the fact that her career had been derailed, but the fact that she was here to draw breath at all. “Even though it was so dreadful and painful, I was so happy to be here. Even in that condition. That was the beginning of seeing life in a completely different way for me, and that is really the core of the message that I share with students. Life is incredible. I knew I would rather be here and going through that than not be here at all.”
Kiara went from living a life with some direction to living one with true purpose. “I realized, I am here on purpose. I chose to be here. Even during my accident I stayed with it, completely conscious the entire time, I decided to experience the whole thing, I feel like I really did choose. Since then I am just so grateful and so sure that I am meant to be here. I am meant to do something here. All of these things that have happened to me can be shared for the good of as many that can take something from it. In that way, the terrible situation was a major gift.” Kiara Kabukuru would like to come and share this gift with your students. Whether your goal is to inspire, celebrate diversity, teach overcoming adversity or simply give students some often needed perspective on their own lives, this remarkable woman is the perfect way to accomplish all these goals.
For more information on bringing Kiara to your campus, contact IMG Speakers at (212) 774-6735 or speakers@img.com. www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
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No Place For Hate is a unique and innovative program featuring two men that are polar opposites upon first glance, but are famously well matched upon further inspection. When you hear each of their stories and how closely their current goals and mindsets have aligned, there can be no doubt this is a perfect match.
Daryl Davis has been featured in Campus Activities Magazine® before, and is a well-traveled and well-known speaker both within and outside of the college circuit. It was through Daryl that Arno Michaelis found his way to the campus 26, CAMpUS ACTIvITIES MAGAzINE®, DIvERSITY ISSUE 2014
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market. “I met Arno about two years ago at an event in New Jersey that we had each been booked at separately,” Daryl says. “We hit it off so well that I spoke to my college booking representative, Scott Wolfman, about Arno.” If you were to jump back in time (and have told Arno Michaelis this as a young man) he would have told you that you were crazy. The thought of him ever uniting forces with an African American man would have repulsed him. Arno is a much different man today.Both he and Daryl speak independently and together on topics of diversity, race, hate, tolerance, acceptance and change. Both have come from drastically different backgrounds to now have such incredible commonalities. www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
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Daryl was a career traveling musician, so he’s never been afraid of an audience. “I started out speaking a long time ago, initially to many high school audiences. They had career days there and I was professional musician. I would speak about majoring in music and jobs in the industry, such a performing artists, recording engineers, record producers, talent managers, etc. I also performed professionally and had met a member of the Ku Klux Klan at one of my gigs. That relationship developed into my desire to write a book. I began going around the country interviewing different Klan leaders and members...those who would speak with me. Of course there were those who would not have anything to do with me either. Some of them though, were as curious about me as I was about them.”
comes from that world with firsthand knowledge.”
Along the way Daryl met all stripes of white power racists. “KKK, Neo Nazis, Church Of The Creator, White Aryan Resistance, Aryan Nations, White Power Skinheads, The American Front and on and on.
got into more and more fights as time went on. I had this habit of lashing out and I got stimulation out of seeing the havoc I was wreaking, the adults pulling their hair out. I got a sense of power from it and it was addictive.”
I amassed all of these stories into a book because since I was a child I have experienced racism in different facets of my life, and I developed a question in the face of that. It was ‘how can you hate me when you don’t even know me?’ This mantra became the basis for my talks. This and my experiences form a perfect unison with Arno’s, a person who
Arno was born to privilege in a wellto-do suburb of Milwaukee and that’s where he grew up. “I lived in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood,” he says. “I never went hungry, I never took a beating. I was born into midwestern white privilege but spent most of my life trying to claw my way out of it. My parents were both together and they loved me very much, but I lived in an alcoholic household. My mom was having a very hard time dealing with life pressures and keeping the household up and running, and as a kid I responded to the suffering that I felt by making other kids suffer. So, I was a bully on the school bus, I was a bully all the way through kindergarten and elementary school and
Things escalated from there. “I was involved with breaking and entering, vandalism, street fights and in high school started drinking myself. Things got exponentially crazier and I started getting into punk rock. It was all about smashing stuff and rebellion and hostility toward society. That is
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who I was when a friend first played white power skinhead music for me. That music drew me in to this sense of romance and justified violence. It was this narrative where I was a warrior fighting for my people and if I didn’t win then all was lost. I was a part of the warrior mythology I had grown up enjoying. On top of that, it really pissed everyone off, so that was the deal maker for me.” Eventually, one of his friends was involved in a shooting and went to prison, another was murdered and Arno spent the next seven years mired in hate. A couple of personal milestones made the difference for him, the main one being finding himself a single parent. He managed to change his views and turn his life around (which you can
hear about in the program) and dedicated his life, much like Daryl, to eradicating hate and spreading understanding. Together, these two performers combine to bring a powerful and personal message to campus audiences, and give two truly unique and cohesive perspectives, unified as one, to your students. To find out more about booking No Place For Hate, contact Wolfman Productions at (800) 735-4933 or info@wolfmanproductions.com www.campusactivitiesmagazine.com
2014 GUIDE TO AMERICA’S BEST ARTIST RATINGS THE RATING SYSTEM: 5= EXCELLENT 4= vERY GOOD 3= AvERAGE 2= FAIR 1= pOOR
HERE IS A COMpREHENSIvE GUIDE TO ALL ARTIST REpORTS SUBMITTED BETwEEN OCT 10, 2014 AND OCT 31, 2014. ONGOING REpORTS wILL BE pUBLISHED IN SUBSEqUENT ISSUES . ALL REPORTS MUST BE SUBMITTED ON OUR WEBSITE AT:.campusactivitiesmagazine.com/arc/ WE NO LONGER TAKE PAPER BALLOTS BY FAX OR MAIL. THERE IS A DIRECT LINK TO THE REPORT FORM ON THE HOME PAGE.
HERE ARE THE CATEGORIES FOR THE RATINGS FOUND AFTER THE BUYER’S NAME AND PLAY DATE: (1) ORIGINALITY; (2) ARTIST’S ABILITY; (3) RELATIONSHIp TO THE AUDIENCE; (4) COOpERATION / ATTITUDE; (5) ROAD CREw / MANAGEMENT; (6) AGENCY COOpERATION; (7) pROMOTIONAL MATERIALS pROvIDED. Campus Reports listed in RED indicate the buyer reported a perfect score in all categories that applied to their campus performance for that artist or event. ATTENDANCE (when Available) AND THE LOCATION ON CAMpUS wILL FOLLOw THE pERFORMANCE DATE.
COMEDY
ADAM GRABOWSKI Auburn Moon Agency
University of Akron Main Campus, Akron, OH 10/08/14 450+ Student Union Ballrooms 5555555 Adam comes in every year and wows the crowd. He has a way of making students laugh uncontrollably with his improv comedy that he comes up with on the spot in addition to his regularly scheduled materials. Akron loves having Adam on campus! A ! Robbie Williford, Grad Assistant for RHPB SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, Cobleskill, NY 10/18/14 250 Ballroom 5555-5Adam was M/C for our annual Coby's Got Talent. Great job. Scott Hoke, Event Leader BRIAN C. JOHNSON Kirkland Productions
Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA 10/09/14 400+ BAC A100 5554-34 Several students came up to Brian to speak to him after the performance. One student in particular was a CWS Lab Leader( upperclassmen Peer Mentors that assist in the Orientation classes). This student in particular mentioned that he had been to many diversity workshops and that this was the first workshop he had been to that he felt the students could really relate to. Lilah Flores, Inbound/First Year Programs Coordinator
CHAD DANIELS Summit Comedy, Inc.
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA 09/14/12 300 Price Auditorium 4455-5Lyndsay Hepler, Haven Activities Council Coordinator CHLOE HILLIARD Summit Comedy, Inc.
University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI 10/17/14 87 The Encore, DUC 4445-55 Keishla Gonzalez, FRANCISCO RAMOS Summit Comedy, Inc.
Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA 10/24/11 1000 Student Center 5555555 Maria-Lisa Flemington, Program Coordinator
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach, FL 10/24/14 100+ John-Paul Riddle Student Center 4555555 Very funny guy, high energy & overall great performance that was well loved by the student body. Mark Millimet, Chairperson Touch-N-Go Productions FRANGELA Sophie K. Entertainment
Saint Joseph's College of Maine, Standish, ME 09/26/14 100 The Chalet 5555555 Matt Gawel, Coordinator of Student Activities
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FRANK LIOTTI KP Comedy
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 10/07/14 41 Perkins West Lounge 4334-5Frank Liotti covered another comedian who had cancelled on us. He came early and was incredibly friendly. He was a pleasure to work with. I had previously seen some of his youtube clips and was dying for him to come here. Unfortunately, the execution of his jokes seemed to be more smooth and comical online then in person. He seemed out of breath for some of his show. Otherwise, his jokes very incredibly funny and I, along with my peers, really enjoyed the show. Dani Kupperman, SCPAB Programming Chair JEFFREY JAY Summit Comedy, Inc.
University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 10/16/14 25 U Maine Machias 5555-5Was a great show! Jeffrey is great to work with. The Q & A section was a great learning experience for our students... to be able to ask whatever questions they may have. Nichole Cote, Dir of Student Engagment Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 10/18/14 80 International Center 5455555 Caroline Poole, UAB Multicultural Director VLADIMIR CAAMANO Sophie K. Entertainment
University of Pittsburgh-Titusville, Titusville, PA 10/09/14 50 Boomer's 5555555 Vladimir was awesome! I would highly
recommend him to any college or university looking for a comedian that is going to leave their students splitting from laughter. He was down to earth and built a good relationship with his audience. The students loved him and asked for him to come back in the future! Awesome show, amazing guy with extraordinary talent! Evan Ditty, Intern Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ 10/28/14 70 Friends Hall 5555-54 Vlad's hysterical and witty performance surpassed my expectations. He attracted a large crowd and was very engaging with the audience. The audience were beyond receptive in return. There aren't many comedians out there that can perform 'clean' jokes with such execution that will have people rolling out of their seats. He was an act to remember. Noel Gordon Jr., Music Co-Chair, College Programming Board
MUSIC
DAKABOOM Degy Entertainment
Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, VA 10/16/14 300+ Snidow Chapel 5555-55 Dakaboom hosted Lynchburg College's annual Homecoming Week Lip Sync Competition while incorporating their musical and comical styling in between acts. Ben and Paul were not only amazing to work with, but they related well to everyone in the audience young and old. We would bring them back in a heartbeat! Justin Donnelly, Assistant Director of Student Involvement
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JARED MAHONE Degy Entertainment
University of Akron Main Campus, Akron, OH 10/15/14 200 Starbucks of Student Union Building 5555555 Jared was fantastic. While the students were relaxing or doing homework, he was strumming away on his guitar, telling stories, and allowing students to take that journey with him. Great performance. Definitely recommended for anyone who is looking to have a coffeehouse style performance! A-plus! Robbie Williford, Grad Assistant for RHPB
VARIETY
ANTHONY TRUCKS Kirkland Productions
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, PA 09/29/14 95 Multicultural Center 5555-55 Madelyn Rodriguez, Director BEN SEIDMAN Summit Comedy, Inc.
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH 10/17/14 220 Gallagher Student Center 5555555 Ben was very entertaining and delightful. Would love to have him again for different events! Nneka Bonner, SAC (Student Activites Council) member Alvernia University, Reading, PA 10/18/14 150+ Francis Hall Auditorium 4544454 Joe Benyish, Assistant Director, Student Activities CHRISTOPHER CARTER Bass/Schuler Entertainment
Millikin University, Decatur, IL 10/09/14 80 Performance Space RTUC 555555Millikin loved having Christopher Carter on campus to help us celebrate Homecoming week! He was engaging, funny, and played with the audience throughout the whole show. He really WOWed us with his talent, and his performance. Students are still talking about the event, and how much they enjoyed him. Molly Berry, Director of Inclusion and Stu Eng
North Iowa Area Community College, Mason City, IA 10/15/14 75 NIACC 5555555 Chris was GREAT. I have had people come up to me when Chris had left wanting him to come back for another show. He was get with the audience and always kept people on their toes. I would recommend his show to everyone!!
Jeremy Winters, Co-Student Activites DANIEL MARTIN Bass/Schuler Entertainment
Quincy University, Quincy, IL 10/03/14 100+ Cafe 5555-55 Super helpful with setup, great to work with, audience loved him. Appropriate for family weekend which is what we brought him to campus for! Very original. Lizzie Richards, Campus Activities Graduate Assistant
University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 10/09/14 70 House of Maize & Blue 5555-45 Daniel was exceptional, his ability and talent far exceed his price point. Students were entertained and dazzled; this event will go down as the best quality program of the semester and legitimized campus activities board & our performance events. Can't wait to bring him back! Seth Newell, Coordinator of Campus Activities & Residential Engagement Ohio State UniversityNewark Campus, Newark, OH 10/15/14 107 Warner Center 5555555 Fantastic! Well received by students, very easy to work with and great entertainer. Dan will become a must have on our campus! Book him, you can't go wrong! Holly Mason, Director of Student Life ERIC MINA GP Entertainment
Widener University-Main Campus, Chester, PA 10/17/14 296 Alumni Auditorium 5555555 Our show with Eric Mina was awesome. Eric was on time, professional, and very engaging with our students. He took very good care of the students on stage and was very easy to work with. We will definitely have him back in the future. Austin Duckett, Director of Student Engagement
Penn State Abington, Abington PA 10/27/14 200+ Lares 5555555 Very interactive with the audience. The show was amazing. Absolutely hysterical. Will be coming back soon Melanie, Common Break Chair
Neumann University, Aston PA 10/28/14 122 MPR 5555-55 This has been our biggest show outside of homecoming. Eric was able to connect with students very well. Everyone was entertained for the entire show. The show was really great! He kept the audience laughing and kept everyone stunned with his show. Kristina Christopher Lyons, Chair of Exploration
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IVAN PECEL Fresh Variety
Saint Ambrose University, Davenport, IA 10/24/14 150+ Rogalski Center Ballroom 555555Ivan's performance was just the thing to kick-off our Family Weekend! His interaction with the crowd was appropriate and amazing. I would not hesitate in bringing him back to perform for a family friendly event. Jason Richter, Director of Student Engagement JOHN CASSIDY Sophie K. Entertainment
University of Minnesota-Crookston, Crookston, MN 10/01/14 110 Keihle Auditorium 5555543 Baby was awesome, Funny, easy to work with, extremely grateful. Michael Laurich, SPACE Day-time Event Coordinator
St Olaf College, Northfield, MN 10/02/14 150+ Lion's Pause 555554We absolutely loved having John and his family at St. Olaf. The show was unbelievable and inflated with excitement! Everyone who attended had such a wonderful time and they all left with stories and smiles to share! Brandon Cash, Student Activities Committee Coordinator Valley City State University, Valley City, ND 10/03/14 150 Vangstad Aud. 555555This show is AWESOME! John has such high energy and involves the audience right from the start. He gives students opportunities to get involved and they get FREE STUFF from him as well. I would recommend him for any type of event your campus is having. Kari Stricklin, Dir. St. Ctr./ St. Act.
Concordia University-Wisconsin, Mequon, WI 10/04/14 250 Auditorium 4555433 John did an amazing job, he performed as part of our Family Weekend activities and was able to alter his performance to meet the demographic of the Audience. We did not have one complaint and everyone left laughing! CAB, Coordinator Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, NY 10/21/14 90 Student Center 555555Excellent in all regards. Easy to work with and great with the students. Jason Boring, Assistant Director for Student Activities JONATHAN BURNS Fresh Variety
Texas A & M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, TX 10/16/14 60 Jones Auditorium 4455-5Jonathan Burns was great. Those who attended enjoyed the performance. We
also liked that he personalized his shorts to say "Texas." Next time they should read "TAMUK" to really personalize it. Overall it was great! Loreal Robertson, Coordinator, Campus Activities University of North GeorgiaGainesville, Gainesville, GA 10/22/14 400+ Student Center Stage 5555555 He was amazing! The crowd loved him. He is a very engaging entertainer who draws student participation effortlessly. Can't wait to have him back again! Brenda Adams, Coord. of Student Life
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA 10/26/14 40+ Scots Theater 5555-44 The show went over great, and the students seemed to really like the event! Marissa Connor, UPB Board Member MAD CHAD TAYLOR Bass/Schuler Entertainment
Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, KY 10/03/14 200 V.P. Henry 5555-55 I would highly recommend MAD Chad Taylor for college/university entertainment! Lafawn Nettles, Director of Student Activities
Gillette College, Gillette, WY 10/15/14 50+ TEC 5555-55 Chad was one of the easiest-to-workwith performers we've had. He communicated well with us about his needs for the show, and rolled with some minor setbacks that came up. Everyone that attended enjoyed the show, and he stuck around after to talk with audience members, answer their questions, and take pictures with them. Nicole Clark, Coordinator of Campus Life
Sheridan College, Sheridan, WY 10/16/14 125+ Thorne-Rider Campus Center 5555555 The audience really enjoyed his humor, and the way that he engaged with the crowd was good. Deneese Stone, Programming Board Intern Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD 10/17/14 140 Jacket Legacy Room 55555-5 Chad was great! He had a really cool attitude and awesome with the crowd. Shandell Clutter, Vice President SEAN BOTT Bass/Schuler Entertainment
Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL 10/25/14 156 Gymansium 5555555 Sean was amazing and I heard a lot of people say that we should bring him back! He was great and very easy to work with. I definitely recommend him. Brianna Klein, Special Events Chair
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TEAM M&M Everything But The Mime
St. Joseph's College, Patchogue, NY 09/04/14 1000 St. Joseph's College 5555555 Kerrianne Russo, CAB Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX 10/04/14 2000+ Campus Quad 5445-5Kevin Bazner, Assistant Director
Middle Georgia State College-Macon, Macon, GA 10/15/14 150+ Student Life Center 5555555 They were wonderful - amazing artistry in their body art and balloons and very kind people. They were great with the students and even helped us promote our next event. We will definitely have them back!!! Amy Martin, Student Life Coordinator THE CRESCENT CIRCUS Wally's World Of Entertainment
University of Arkansas Community College-Batesville, Batesville, AR 10/20/14 364 Independence Hall 5555555 Outstanding performance engaging the audience with comedy and suspense. Great show for ages 3 to 93! Provided a teaser on campus in the afternoon before the show to students which resulted in a 38% increase of students attending. Nathan is a born entertainer. Both were extremely easy to accommodate. Would highly recommend to other campuses. Beverly Moss, Assist to Vice Chancellor Students
NOVELTIES
BALLOONS BY LESTER & BODY ART BY SUSAN Everything But The Mime
SPEAKERS DEL SUGGS Del Suggs
Wayne State College, Wayne, NE 10/17/14 15 Gardner Hall 5555--Del is a wonderful presenter, and has done a great job with WSC faculty and staff the last 2 times he's been on campus! We hope to be able to bring him here once a year!!! Kara Woehler, Retention Specialist TRiO ELAINE PASQUA Pasqua Productions, Inc.
Saint Francis University, Loretto, PA 10/14/14 350 Maurice Stokes Athletics Center 5555--5 John Krimmel, Associate AD for Student-Athlete Academic Services
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Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA 10/16/14 350 Gettysburg College Ball room 5555--Fantastic speaker - relates well to her audience. Great role plays to bring home the point. Very powerful and helpful!! Highly recommend!! Carol Cantele, Assistant Athletic Director JESSICA PETTITT Kirkland Productions
University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO 10/21/14 100 Elliott Union 5555-5Emily Bergsieker, Assistant Director of Student Activities STACEY LANNERT Kirkland Productions
Bainbridge College, Bainbridge, GA 10/28/14 250 Outside Sidewalk 5555555 Justin Gravlee, Asst. Director of Student Life
Drake University, Des Moines, IA 10/07/14 50+ Drake University 5555555 She was so wonderful to work with and did a really great job sharing her story. Kayla Manning, Student Activities Board Campus Impact Co-Chair
Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA 10/07/14 50 Student Union Building 4344444 He was not able to draw the sketches as quickly as we thought they would be drawn. In the past we have had 1015 drawn in an hour and his average was 6-7 an hour. Therefore, not as many people were able to get sketches done. Meghan Sharp, Fall Fest Committee Head
University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 08/23/14 1200 Gusman Performance Hall 5555554 The speakers were engaging and knowledgeable. "The Hook-up" was said to be one of the best sessions during New Student Orientation in feedback from the students. This session brought real conversation to a challenging topic. Matthew Barnes, Assistant Director, Orientation
REAR VIEW SKETCHES Kirkland Productions
Share Your Experiences... You Have Nothing To Lose And Everything To Gain.
THE HOOK-UP Catharsis Productions
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PHOTO: H. MILLER
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Carlos Augusto Alves Santana was born on July 20, 1947, in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico. His father, Jose, was an accomplished professional violinist, and Carlos learned to play the guitar at age 8. In 1955, the family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana, the border city between Mexico and California. As a teenager, Santana began performing in Tijuana strip clubs, inspired by the American rock & roll and blues music of artists like B.B. King, Ray Charles and Little Richard. In the early 1960s, Santana moved again with his family, this time to San Francisco, where his father hoped to find work.
In San Francisco, the young guitarist got the chance to see his idols, most notably King, perform live. He was also introduced to a variety of new musical influences, including jazz and international folk music, and witnessed the growing hippie movement centered in San Francisco in the 1960s. After several years spent working as a dishwasher in a diner and playing for spare change on the streets, Santana decided to become a full-time musician. In 1966, he formed the Santana Blues Band, with fellow street musicians David Brown and Gregg Rolie. With their highly original blend of Latin-infused rock, jazz, blues, salsa and African rhythms, the band—which quickly became known simply as Santana—gained an immediate following on the San Francisco club scene. The band's early success, capped off by a memorable performance at Woodstock in 1969, led to a recording contract with Columbia Records.Their first album, Santana (1969), spurred by a Top 10 single, "Evil Ways," went triple platinum, selling more than 4 million copies and remaining on the Billboard chart for more than two years. Abraxas, released in 1970, went platinum, scoring two more hit singles, "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman." The band's next two albums, Santana III (1971) and Caravanserai (1972), were also critical and popular successes. As the band's personnel changed frequently, Santana (the band) came to be associated almost exclusively with Santana himself—who soon became the only remaining member of the original trio—and his psychedelic guitar riffs. In addition to his work with his band, Santana recorded and performed with a number of other musicians, notably drummer Buddy Miles, pianist Herbie Hancock and guitarist John McLaughlin.
Santana's phenomenal comeback on the pop charts began in 1997, when he re-signed the band with his first producer and mentor, Davis, then the president of Arista Records. Davis enlisted a roster of prominent musicians among them Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews, and Wyclef Jean to perform on the legendary guitarist's 35th album, Supernatural, released in 1999. By early 2000, the album had sold 10 million copies worldwide and spawned a No. 1 hit single, "Smooth," featuring catchy pop lyrics sung by Rob Thomas and Santana's Latin-spiced, electrically-charged guitar licks.
Nominated in nine categories at the Grammy Awards including Album of the Year (Supernatural), Record of the Year, and Song of the Year (both "Smooth") Santana won in every category. With his eight awards (the award for Song of the Year went to Thomas and Itaal Shur, who wrote "Smooth"), Santana tied Michael Jackson's 1983 record for most Grammy Awards won in a single year.
Santana’s new album Corazón (RCA/Sony Latin Iberia) released May 6, 2014 is a collaborative effort with the biggest names in Latin music including ChocQuibTown, Lila Downs, Gloria Estefan, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Juanes, ziggy Marley, Miguel, Niña Pastori, Diego Torres, Samuel Rosa of Skank, Cindy Blackman Santana, Romeo Santos, Soledad, Wayne Shorter, and more. This is Santana’s first Latin music album of his iconic career.
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grandson of one of the major tobacco families was a speaker, a very good speaker, and he was going completely against his family business in order to help as many people as possible be tobacco free. We Googled and found Patrick Reynolds’ name, of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company family.”
Barb handled contact and negotiation with Patrick Reynolds, the Executive Director for The Foundation for a Smoke Free America. “We really wanted to know what we were getting into and his website was extremely helpful, not only because it had all the information we needed to decide if he was right for us but also because it had so many videos and illustrations of his speaking ability and interaction with the press and different age groups.”
Funding was arranged through various organizations and student groups. “As we started to pursue that, the ball kept rolling and more and more groups decided to help support and sponsor the event. The other upside for us was that Patrick’s program is not that expensive. It was nice to have people be able to get $500 or $1000 mini grants here and there and make it happen, it didn’t take breaking the bank for anyone to get on board.”
The program was last April and the ban went into effect this fall semester. It was a pretty rapid transition compared to most other campuses who have taken an entire academic year for the switch, but the reception has been well-regarded and the crossover smooth. “There has been very little negative feedback,” both Barb and Cindy tell us. “We’ve been able to develop a cleaner, healthier atmosphere
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for our campus and we are very pleased,” Cindy says. Barb adds “Patrick Reynolds was an intimate part of this process and I would highly encourage any other campuses considering this shift to use Patrick in the way that we did to prepare, energize and motivate their campuses to become tobacco free.” For more information on NMU’s switch to being a tobacco free campus, contact Cindy Paavola at cipaavol@nmu.edu.
For more information on Patrick Reynolds and The Foundation For A Smoke Free America, call (310) 577-9828 or check out www.anti-smoking.org
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