Throughout homecoming week, students are given the opportunity to vote for their king and queen. Students can be nominated by their organizations on campus for the chance to be crowned king or queen. The royalty crowning took place at the Yell like Hell event on Thursday, Oct 17.
“I think it was really just, the honor of being nominated by my sisters and my organization, knowing that they thought of me first to represent them on campus and through this process,” said senior in human communication Jaquelyn Bouchie.
The homecoming royalty process started with each person nominated and slowly narrowed down as few candidates progressed through each round. It ended with the homecoming court, who attended Yell like Hell and were on the ballot to be nominated as king and queen.
“I got to experience a lot of support from, especially, the fraternity I’m involved in and all of the other campus organizations,” said senior in biology and chemistry Tyson Roderique. “I got to see the community come together through social media and at work and it was a really supportive time.”
Voting was open until noon on Thursday, when votes were tallied, and the finalists were introduced individually and then the homecoming court was crowned. Last year’s king and queen crowned Roderique and Bouchie.
“It was crazy,” Roderique said. “I kind of entered the night not really expecting anything, I was content just being here throughout the entire process. It was very rewarding. So, to be crowned king was just the cherry on top.”
Roderique was nominated by the honors college and Bouchie was nominated by her sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha.
“It was nerve wracking,” Bouchie said. “In my organization, we’ve had quite a few homecoming queens so being nominated was an honor but then it was scary trying to live up to expectations.”
Bouchie said she was nervous and excited to just to be nominated and get to be there.
“I didn’t think they actually said my name,” Bouchie said. “I kind of did a double take like no way. So, that was crazy. I couldn’t believe it.”
The first attendant for king was senior in psychology Derrick Sumner, nominated by the ROTC and the second attendant was senior in accounting Dylan Grover, nominated by Sigma Tau Gamma. For queen first attendant was senior in nursing Piper Misse nominated by the nursing program and second attendant senior in business management Kennedy Stein from Tri Sigma Alpha.
The homecoming committee put on the event as well as all of the events for the week.
“At first it was kind of stressful just making sure everything was done because this is a big event every year but the whole group was really supportive and everyone’s super helpful and we all worked together so it made it easier getting everything done on time,” said junior in communication and yell like hell chair Caroline Dole.

The committee planned the entire Yell like Hell event and prepared for the Homecoming court to be announced at the end of the event.
“It was kind of weird,” Dole said. “It was like ‘oh my gosh, this is it,’ because we had been a team since sometime last semester and so to finally see it all happening it was like what is this.”