It’s been a spirited few weeks of queen of orange and green campaigning. Candidates have invested their weeks and hundreds of dollars to try and spark interest with potential student voters.
During the spring semester, students vote for a student-candidate that will hold the position on royal court as queen of orange and green. The candidate usually shows the most school spirit and helps with recruitment along with others duties.
Five young women competed for the title of Queen of Orange and Green: Breanna Herbert; Ciera Hall; Autumn Harris; Keena Armstrong and Danielle Padgett.
Keena Armstrong, 22, a fourth-year philosophy, sociology and religion student from Devanport, Iowa, has centered her campaign on the theme of “Planting School Spirit Within Our Hearts,” and has titled her platform the “Solid Foundation.”
“You can’t grow unless you have a solid foundation,” Armstrong said. “I would like to have an organization shout out day to bring awareness to organizations on campus, that would also allow organizations to be more active on campus.”
Armstrong also supports an “I represent day,” “bringing the set back up to the set” and wants to provide a $250 scholarship for the student with the most school spirit.
Keena Armstrong and Ciera Hall both support having a yearbook for Florida A&M students that would help capture the memories and faces at FAMU.
Most of the candidates want to help find better ways of informing students about the events and activities that take place on campus that usually are not well informed for students.
Ciera Hall, 22, a senior graphic designs student from Tampa, Fla., has focused her campaign on the topic of “Hall aboard the FAMUly AFFAIR,” and has named her platform the “Choo Choo platform.”
Hall primarily supports capturing the essence of FAMU and honoring FAMU students. She would like to create new forms of recruitment, reconnect alumni to FAMU, and create better ways of getting the word out about what events and activities are being held on campus.
“If I was elected, I would be more hands on and more personal with the student body,” Hall said.
Hall has always wanted to be queen of orange and green, but has also been inspired by Taylor Barrington, the current queen of orange and green.
Breanna Herbert, 20, a third-year, civil engineer student from Orlando, Fla., has put together the “First Class Experience platform.”
Herbert encourages ideas that will help freshman students feel at home through spirit workshops, make better use of social networks to keep students informed about events on campus, and create recycle initiatives to support a cleaner healthier campus.
Herbert also wants to put effort towards increasing morale in the Tallahassee community relaying the excitement about FAMU to local students and families.
“The 2007 queen of orange and green Benicia Mitchell inspired me to run for the position,” Herbert said.
To run an effective campaign is usually very costly for student candidates.
Hall has spent close to $1,500 for her campaign, Armstrong has spent an about $900 on her campaign and Herbert has spent less then $900 on her campaign.
Harris has been hospitalized the last couple of days and was not available for questions, and Danielle Padgett was also not available.