Homecoming royals recall their moment

At halftime of the ASU football game Saturday, Sharnea Diggs and Adrian Everett were crowned 2009 Homecoming queen and king.

Diggs, a senior political science major from Little Rock, and Everett, a junior chemistry major from McGehee, are the second black king and queen in ASU history.

After hearing their names announced over the speakers, both said they were overwhelmed.

"I just heard my first name and it was like a bomb just exploded," Everett said. "It was crazy. I was just out of control.

"I felt like everything kind of came together," Diggs said. "I have been trying to represent the students since my freshmen year and all the hard work came together."

ASU has strict stipulations for candidates to campaign on the campus for Homecoming court and king and queen.

They are only allowed to utilize the Internet and produce fliers that are no larger than eight and a half inches by eleven inches.

Diggs said her campaign made quarter fliers with Everett, which they passed around from a campaigning location on campus, utilized Facebook and word of mouth.

"People depend on people knowing their names, but getting out and meeting people really helped I think," she said. "It made people really believe I wanted to represent ASU."

Everett said his team did the same things as Diggs; except he placed quarter fliers in all the residence halls during both voting periods.

"We kind of worked together on the campaign, so it would have been kind of heartbreaking if one got it and not the other," Diggs said.

Both Diggs and Everett are involved in many different areas of the ASU campus.

Everett has been involved with SGA since his freshmen year, serving as a freshman senator, College of Math and Sciences senator and is currently the junior senator and president pro-temp. He is also the SAB spirit club director, has been a community assistant at NorthPark Quads for two years, an orientation leader for two years and vice president of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

He is also involved in Brother to Brother, Black Student Association, American Chemical Society and is an ambassador to the Admissions Office and Alumni Office.

Diggs served on SGA for two years as a freshmen senator and as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences senator. She has served on the Issues and Awareness Committee for SAB, as vice president of the Student Leadership Board, vice president of Circle of Trust, and the Multi-Cultural Enrichment director for SAB. She is also a four-year member of both the Pre-Law Club and the Honors College Association. She is currently president of the SAB, a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and NPHA judicial chair and parliamentarian.

Both Diggs and Everett have served as global student leaders in Europe and are a part of the Student Union Advisory Council this year.

"I think Adrian and I have both served in different capacities at ASU and that has really given us a better advantage to represent ASU and the community," Diggs said.

Everett said hearing his orientation leaders tell him to get involved before he started at ASU helped to push him to be involved with so many things.

"In high school, I was really involved," he said. "I came to ASU alone and not knowing anyone and to enjoy my college experience, I had to get involved. I started with Brother to Brother and that just led into other things."

Diggs said she wanted to make a connection with ASU as soon as she got here so she started trying to get involved.

"I was very involved in high school, but coming to ASU, I didn't know very many people," she said. "I wanted to connect with ASU and have a sense of home and felt the best way to do that was to just jump right in."

She also stressed how important it was to be involved at ASU during your time here.

"I personally feel the best way for a student to feel connected to ASU is to make connections with people at ASU, whether it be students or administrators," she said. "Just establish relationships with people and build on that."