The Scottville sophomore is training to compete in the 2011 Miss Michigan Scholarship Pageant June 18 in Muskegon.

“It’s really exciting,” Claveau said. “If I were to win Miss Michigan it would be a really great opportunity.”

Claveau qualified for the competition after winning the Miss Ludington Area Pageant in November.

(Sara Winkler/Staff Photographer)

She said she will compete against 20 other women from all across the state. The winner will receive a $10,000 reward and $50,000 worth of scholarships, she said.

Claveau said she trains for about 10 to 12 hours a week and participates in fundraising events and parades to prepare.

In it to win it

Claveau said the Miss Michigan competition is divided into multiple parts: A 10-minute interview in front of the judges, an onstage question and answer session about her platform, the swimsuit and evening gown competitions and a 90-second talent performance.

She said she will play bass guitar for the talent portion of her performance.

Claveau said she has been in four pageants total.

Her father, Dan Claveau, was the one who first encouraged her to compete.

Dan Claveau said he had to miss seeing Julie compete in her first pageant, the Scottville Harvest Festival, because he was sick with pneumonia and in the hospital.

Julie visited him in the hospital after she won, he said.

Dan Claveau said he will definitely be there this time.

“The only thing that will take me down is if I can’t walk,” Dan Claveau said. “I think she will do an extraordinary job.”

Julie’s roommate Stephanie Jaczkowski, a Clinton Township senior, said she screamed on the phone with Julie in excitement after hearing she won the Miss Ludington Area Pageant.

“Julie is a really great girl and works really hard,” Jaczkowski said. “I’m excited for her.”

Platform a passion

Each contestant runs on the platform of an issue they want to promote. Claveau’s platform is the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

She has played clarinet for the CMU Marching Band for two years. She said competing in pageants allows her to promote and raise money for music education.

“Music has always been my passion,” Claveau said. “I feel that it’s important for schools to have music programs despite the low budgets or low incomes they may have.”

She said she used to be think of herself as a “band geek” until she went to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in middle school.

It was there, she said, she found many people who share the same love for music she does. She said she remains friends with many of them today.

He wasn’t the only one. Hundreds of people gathered at the Ward Theatre, 218 S. Main St. to partake in the holiday celebration.

The India graduate student and president of the Indian Students Association, a registered student organization, helped host Diwali Night.

“This gives students a taste of home,” Nunna said. “Many of us here, we miss home badly.”

Diwali is a five-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism which occurs between mid-October and mid-November.

Nunna said the celebration symbolizes a victory of good over evil.

The event included Indian dance and music performances, a fashion show and Indian cuisine, with traditional food such as biryani, a rice-based dish.

The fashion show and dance numbers were a whirl of colorful saris and other outer garments, ranging from deep golds, to blues and pinks, from casual to upscale celebration.

India graduate student Angel Erpula performed an Indian folk dance, a Bollywood dance and a Tollywood dance performance.

“The Bollywood dance was my favorite,” Erpula said. “It has the best music.”

India graduate student Shilpa Alamuri danced with two other students in colorful Indian attire.

She said the event reminded her of home, and it was the best time she has had so far during her first semester at CMU.

“It was absolutely fun,” Alamuri said. “We can let loose for once.”

Mount Pleasant resident Mike List performed a tabla, an Indian hand-drum instrument, solo.

List said he has played the tabla for four years and traveled to India to study classical Indian music. He said when playing the tabla, one uses different finger motions than other forms of drumming.

“It’s a pretty old musical tradition,” List said. “It’s been around for thousands of years.”

Nunna said watching the various Indian dances was his favorite part.

“It’s like a cultural exposure,” Nunna said. “People can see the dancing and food of another culture.”

But Fish N Chips made the pop song and many others its own Friday night at the Broadway Theatre, 216 E. Broadway St. in front of a crowd of about 300.

“We have a lot of fun singing everything,” said Troy junior Josh Lee, a group member. “I love singing Katy Perry, I think it’s fun to put a different spin on her.”

Fish N Chips is a 14-member male acappella group that has existed at Central Michigan University for about 10 years, said Kevin Troshak, a Howell senior and group member.

Troshak said the group has performed all around campus and usually performs one big concert per semester.

The group will perform at 6 p.m. Dec. 5 for “Sounds of the Season” in Moore Hall’s Townsend Kiva. The event will be the first time all of CMU’s a cappella groups will perform on the same stage.

In addition to Fish N Chips, the Mountain Town Singers, Central Harmony, On the Rox, Ebb N Flow, Northern Rhapsody and the CMU Brass Quintet are all planning on performing.

Fish N Chips performed a number of different songs including “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi.

The group also performed a three-way combination of Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” and “Teenage Dream.”

Harrison senior Nathan Heath uses his vocals to provide the beat to the group’s music.

“My freshman year, I went to a Fish N Chips concert and saw the beatboxer and thought, ‘you know that’s really cool,” Heath said.

He said he frequently makes beats in elevators, or at Walmart and gets strange looks. People have asked him how he does it and whether or not he is even human, he said.

Marysville freshman Chelsea Witherspoon and Port Huron sophomore Annjanette Kohl said they loved Fish N Chips’ Friday performance.

“They have a lot of fun with it, so it’s entertaining,” Witherspoon said.

She said she saw the group practice at Sweeney Hall and the towers and was impressed.

Kohl said the group flows well from song to song.

“I liked how the beatboxing wasn’t evident, but was crucial in the background,” Kohl said. “It was really good, I enjoyed it.”

But it’s not something the Charlevoix freshman learned overnight — it’s apart of his Odawa tribal heritage.

Shenoskey has been practicing hoop dancing for three years.

“It is an indescribable kind of feeling,” Shenoskey said Monday, wearing colorful regalia covering his entire body. “Your mind is always in different places because you have to decide what to do next.”

American Indian dancing and food was on display Monday in the Bovee University Center Rotunda for the Anishinaabe Food Taster, as apart of Native American Heritage Month. Food included wild rice, fish, squash and venison. About 250 people attended.

Nathan Isaac said feasts are an important part of American Indian culture.

“Food is one of the biggest gifts you can give someone,” said Isaac, an Ojibwe language teacher at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy, 7498 E. Broadway Road. “Long before the Europeans came here, these were the types of food that was shared.”

Isaac said most people today hunt and gather food at Wal-Mart.

Mount Pleasant junior Josh Hudson, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the event has been in planning since September. Hudson said the night gave students an insight into American Indian life.

“This is a great learning experience for CMU as a whole,” Hudson said. “We’ll have to find a bigger place for it next year.”

Several students participated in the “round dance” by holding hands and moving around in a circle as five people supplied the music.

“I really liked the dance and how it was community-orientated,” said Dearborn freshman Elizabeth Cundy. “It was easy to learn and fun. I’d give the event a ten out of ten.”

Wisconsin graduate student Chris Hagen personally thanked Shenoskey after the event for his “hoop dancing.”

“You could tell he mastered his dance,” Hagen said. “He did it with such fluidity.”

Hagen said he also enjoyed the food.

“The wild blueberry desert had a creamy consistency,” Hagen said. “They use special blueberries and you can taste the difference.”