Alisha Fregoe, a senior Communications major at SUNY Cobleskill, won the national Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) Star Competition in Orlando on March 9-12.
As the APCA Star, Alisha receives a $1,000 scholarship, a free showcase, and a contract with a national talent agency.
“When I won I was absolutely blown away,” Alisha said. “Now everything is happening really fast. It’s hard to believe— but really, really exciting.”
Alisha has been writing poetry since she was six. She was inspired to try her hand at spoken word poetry after seeing a duo perform live when she was a sophomore at SUNY Cobleskill. About a year ago, a friend encouraged her to enter Coby’s Got Talent, which she did. Then she started getting up on stage every chance she got.
In Orlando, she performed two pieces: one about drug abuse and its effects on a loved one, and one about women’s rights. The first, she said, is deeply personal; the second felt appropriate for National Women’s History Month.
“I’m very passionate about women’s rights, a feminist,” she said. “I did that poem to talk about how we need to stop seeing women as just a body, just a sexual object, and encourage the potential that they have. Show them that they’re more than a pretty outfit or a nice face with makeup.”
> Read an interview with Alisha
Alisha got the chance to represent the Northeast Region at the national level after winning an APCA competition in New Jersey last fall. In Orlando, she competed against four other college students from across the country.
SUNY Cobleskill is a member of the APCA and sends a group of students to the APCA conference each semester to attend educational workshops, share ideas with peers, and book talent for the coming semester.
With her contract on the way, Alisha plans to begin performing full-time on the college circuit after graduation.
“I want to use my poetry to start talking about social issues that people don’t always want to talk about,” she said. “Get the conversations going on theses college campuses and help students who want to speak out themselves and start some change.”
