A ‘Footloose’ dance routine, a magic show and a full audience were all present at Rudder Auditorium Wednesday night as Zeta Tau Alpha closed out their 4th annual Big Man on Campus with a talent competition.
Big Man on Campus is a competition between various campus organizations throughout the month of October to raise money for breast cancer awareness. Fourteen male contestants represented their student organizations at the 2015 Big Man on Campus Talent Showcase by exhibiting their talents in a competition with the theme “Give Breast Cancer the Boot.”
The competition was capped by Wednesday’s talent showcase, where the winning competitor was crowned. This year the winner was Osagie Aisueni, economics junior who represented Men of God Christian Fraternity and Chi Omega. The competitors were evaluated by 5 judges who included local breast cancer survivors and sophomore defensive lineman Myles Garrett.
Carly Morrison, psychology junior and member of the Zeta Tau Alpha philanthropy team, said Big Man on Campus is special because it brings a diverse set of organizations together.
“Big Man on Campus is special because it’s not just about Zeta, but it’s also about all the women that we’re fighting for and it’s getting to see where all these organizations, how it’s hit them personally too,” Morrison said. “It’s not just affecting our organization personally, I know for a fact that it has affected some of the guys in a significant way, whether that’s a mom or a sister or a grandmother.”
Morrison said it’s important to raise breast cancer awareness because of the pervasiveness of the disease that will affect one out of eight women.
“Not only is that scary but it’s very personal,” Morrison said.” There are a lot of people that we know personally that have been affected. It’s moms, sisters, even some of our friends who are not even 20 years old who have been affected, so that’s why it’s really important.”
Ashley Clark, supply chain management junior and co-philanthropy chair for Zeta Tau Alpha, said this Big Man on Campus is special because this is the first year each contestant represents one male and one female organization.
“I would say it’s unique just because, in the way they get to know each other and some of these contestants have personal ties to breast cancer so that’s important too,” Clark said.
Hannah Hazell, agricultural science senior and Zeta Tau Alpha member, was featured in a video at the end of the talent showcase. Hazell’s mother was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer when Hazell was 14 and after that her mother’s doctor came to her and said she should test to see if she was susceptible to breast cancer also.
“It came back positive. When I hit 17 in my senior year in high school I found out I had breast cancer,” Hazell said. “It was stage two, just like my mom and I went through chemo and radiation just like my mom did and she was there every step of the way.”
Hazell said she found out the cancer returned this past May.
“It was stage one. I was really, really lucky and I went through radiation,” Hazell said. “Being in breast cancer awareness and education, it just makes my time here so much better and that it’s something that I truly want to find a cure for and it’s what they want to find a cure for and we all just want to find the same thing.”