Monthly Archives: October 2011
Crowning a New Queen
Erika Laken Beck, a business management major who has been attending LSU Eunice for two years, majoring in business management, was crowned Miss LSU Eunice at the student government associations’ annual pageant. The judges judged them on interview, poise, and how they presented themselves on stage along with formal wear and interview attire. The top five girls then had an on-stage question.
She and ten other girls competed for the title. Among the ten girls there were five top contenders. The first runner-up was Alani LeJeune, a freshman accounting major from Eunice. Destiny Ceaser and Rikki Vincent both tied for second runner-up. Ceaser is a freshman nursing major, who comes from Basile. While Vincent, a sophomore business management major, comes from the city of Carencro. Kailey Livings, also a freshman nursing major from Lafayette placed fourth runner-up as well as Miss Congeniality.
“The nine other girls that were in it were truly amazing people, and I know the judges really did have a hard time choosing,” said Beck. “None of us really knew each other but we all acted as if we were best friends. It truly makes you realize the good hearted people we have here, not just at LSUE but in Eunice, they have good morals.”
Beck comes from around the New Orleans area: Destrehan, Louisiana where she went to Destrehan High School. Her mother is from Cuba and her dad is from Florida, but her grandfather came here by himself when he was 19 and from there he went to Miami; then he just traveled down the coast and stopped in New Orleans because he had said he liked the agriculture and people.
“I have a small family and they are the most important thing in the world to me. Moving here was so hard for me because I’m three hours away from home now, but I do love Eunice,” said Beck. “Its city is small but so much like the country style I grew to love because I lived next to sugarcane fields, so this farming atmosphere and the people are amazing. They are so sweet.”
Erika’s hobbies include reading, dancing, and farming.
“Going out on the fields and seeing how to cut rice and sugarcane interests me. I love to read, but I especially love reading books that make me feel like I’m actually in the book.” Her goals and dreams include opening up her own pageant boutique.
“I’ve been doing pageants ever since I was a month old. Being around the little girls and having them look up to you when they see a crown and banner, it shows you have something to say and it just makes you so happy,” said Beck. “I want to give those little girls confidence like that. You don’t have to win a pageant, but feeling pretty and putting a dress on, especially one that would come from my boutique would be amazing.”
Beck also is a LSU Eunice baseball trainer. She described the experience as, “When I first got there, I was kind of anxious, but then everybody found out I was Sam Carrier’s girlfriend and now they treat me like their sister,” said Beck. “Even though I’m older than the majority of them, being that I am 21, sometimes we will go somewhere team related, I’m the only girl trainer so if somebody looks at me differently, or talks to me rude, they all act like they are ready to fight that somebody. They truly take care of me.”
Josh Sims, a sophomore wildlife management major who has been playing on the baseball team for two years now as a pitcher, talks about Erika and how it feels having her around the team as their trainer.
“She’s really caring, anything that we need out there on the field or in the locker room. She’s always there to provide it for us,” said Sims. “She washes our clothes, and takes care of things even through half the time she has her hands full. She gets what needs to be done. I believe she deserved it. With the way she carries herself, she doesn’t come off as conceited. She’s just a sweetheart.”
She decided to enter the pageant this year compared to last year because,
“My first year here at LSU Eunice I didn’t consider myself a ‘Bengal’ just yet. I was still learning the ropes and getting the feel of the people. I wanted to actually consider myself a part of LSUE, and so this year was the perfect opportunity.”
To prepare for the pageant she made sure everything was in line. “I was organized and calm. I had prepared a week in advance by making sure I had my suit, dress, and my shoes. I kind of started to study the current events that pageants usually ask you about, watched the news more, and went on the internet.”
Blake sees herself as getting started with her own business, hopefully when she graduates in May.
“I feel that I have such a big heart and I’m passionate about what I do. When I do something I do it full out and I don’t slack off,” said Blake. “Agriculture and things like that are so big to me; I can bring it to wherever I go and make people realize that what I really want to do is make LSU Eunice known. I want to talk about how amazing this school is, and I feel that I’m lucky to get this opportunity to show off LSUE with this community and other communities, and I hope that I do a good job at it.”
Fall 2011 Enrollment Down
Enrollment for the fall 2011 semester at Louisiana State University Eunice was down over the fall of 2010, according to final regular fall semester enrollment figures released by the university’s registrar’s office.
Enrollment is 2,982 down from the record-setting enrollment of 3,431 students set in the fall of 2010.
“Over the past five years prior to Fall 2011, LSU Eunice had accrued nearly a 20 percent enrollment increase,” said LSU Eunice Chancellor William Nunez. “And, therefore, many of these students who went or returned to college during the initial time of this country’s recession have re-entered the workforce once again.”
The economic recession facing the state and country produced economic hardship for families trying to send their children to college. LSU Eunice experienced an above average number of students unable to provide down payments on their tuition to keep their registration current while waiting for their federal financial aid to be processed.
“So, clearly, the continuing recession, and the notable impact which it has already had on our impoverished service region, identifies as one of the major reasons for our campus’ drop in enrollment numbers,” said Nunez.
The dramatic cutback in state funding for Dual Credit has affected LSU Eunice’s enrollment for the fall. Cutbacks resulted in an overall loss of about 300 high school senior enrollees at LSUE compared to those registered by the campus last year.
LSU Eunice reported having 1,909 first-time freshman, 613 sophomores (30 plus credit hours) and 460 unclassified students, which include students with more than 60 credits.
Students from 47 parishes are enrolled in LSU Eunice classes, including off-campus classes. Parishes with 20 or more students attending the university this fall are St. Landry, 781; Acadia, 524; Evangeline, 391; Lafayette, 308; Rapides, 169; Vermilion, 103; Iberia, 95; St. Martin, 92; Jeff Davis, 91; Allen, 65; Calcasieu, 58; St. Mary, 35; St. Tammany 34; East Baton Rouge, 34; and Avoyelles, 28.
LSU Eunice currently has 1,472 full-time students (those student carrying academic loads of 12 semester hours or more) and 1,510 part-time students.
The Bayou Bengal 