Ericka Dunlap, workshops and more

Ericka Dunlap, Miss America 2004, spoke this morning. She spoke about having the right attitude and leadership building. My favorite part of her session was actually the Q & A bit– someone asked her to sing a country song (she’s in Nashville trying to start one).  She has a really nice voice. She mentioned that music producers telling her to just stick with rapping instead of country, because she’s black.

She also left us this bag of M & M’s. It was part of her analogy about being a truffle in a bag of M and Ms. I don’t see any truffles in there, but I’m happy to chug the M and M’s.

The bag was full when we got it. I was not alone in eating them.

After Ericka’s speech, we’ve had about two hours of workshops on everything from writing a personal statement to how to take the GRE. And there’s more workshops to come in the afternoon after 3.

Before that, though, we have Lee Bienstock and Astronaut Chris Armstrong– between 1:30 and 3pm. Lee was on the 5th season of the Apprentice, where he spent several weeks staring down Donald Trump in the boardroom and trying his hardest not to laugh at The Donald’s hair. (At least I assume that’s what he did– I know I’d fall over laughing if I had to stare at DT’s hair all night).

I wrote the intros for most of the keynote speakers we had at the Convention. It’s fun and a bit strange to hear the National Leadership Council folks read those intros. Maybe that’ll be my next career– convention speechwriter. No, don’t feel sorry for me.. I’m only half-joking about the speech-writing bit.