Lehi Faleoapalangi and Dylan-Sage Wilcox were selected to host the 2017 Culture Night because of their outgoing personalities, said Student Events Supervisor JennieLynn Jessop.
This was the third year Faleoapalangi hosted Culture Night. A former student at BYUH who is an emcee and spokesperson for PCC, he said, “I think they literally have my name on a little note. When it comes to Culture Night, get Lehi. NSO activities? Get Lehi.” He has also hosted the New Student Orientation dinners for the past two years.
Wilcox, a junior from the Big Island studying English, said he has not had that much experience emceeing, and this is his first time emceeing a BYUH event. He said, “I’ve never experienced life on stage before. I’m either in the background or the one writing or editing the script or reading material about it. But never like front and center. I’ve hosted for little luaus and family gatherings and facilitated summer programs, but nothing like this. So I was like, ‘All right I’ll just follow Lehi’s lead and we’ll be fine.’ He gave me a lot of tips on how to go about it.”
Wilcox said he was sitting in the library doing his homework when Jessop approached him and asked him to be an emcee for Culture Night. He said it was out of the blue but Jessop told him they had asked a couple people before who declined, and Wilcox decided to accept.
Jessop, a senior in elementary education from Oregon, said the Student Events team is in charge of selecting emcees and giving them the outline. She said, “We look for people who have prior experience emceeing; someone who has stage presence and good public speaking skills. We want someone who is comfortable with being in front of a large crowd; someone who is good at adlibbing and filling in time.”
She said they came up with a list of six people and most of them were unavailable because they were off island, and the two left were Wilcox and Faleoapalangi.
“When we were brainstorming names, [someone] brought up Dylan. Every time he walks into a room, you know he’s arrived. He is so friendly and upbeat. He’s great at getting to know people. He has a wider friend basis and is friends with many students from different cultures, so he is culturally sensitive. We know he is responsible and takes jobs seriously,” said Jessop.
Faleoapalangi said he didn’t know Dylan before. “I guess that’s kind of a pet peeve of mine; whenever I work as an emcee and if I co-host with anybody, I would prefer that I know who they are.” He said it’s easier if they know each other so they can “bounce off of one another and gel off of each other’s energy. On the plus side of things, it gives me an opportunity to meet somebody new and make a new friend.”
Faleoapalangi mentally sized up Wilcox upon meeting him, he said. “With Dylan in particular, I was like, ‘Oh great,’ and I kind of rolled my eyes. I thought, ‘Why don’t you let me pick the co-host?’ But then when I met Dylan, I was talking to him and having my quote-on-quote interview with him asking him about his personal story. He’s a really chill person, and it seems like he loves to talk.
“As far as his personality, I don’t think I had any problems with him. I warned him though, ‘If we do something on the spot, just roll with it. If I tell you to get down and do the worm, do the worm man. You don’t know how? Just flop around or something. Bro, we do that and we’ll have some fun.’ For me, it’s all about making memories too. It’s all good fun.”
Wilcox said, “To be brutally honest, I did not know this fellow until I got into this gig, I didn’t really know who Lehi was. I maybe heard about him, but I didn’t really know much. He’s super personable. Things like this are totally up his alley. He said to go with the flow.”
This was the least amount of time Faleoapalangi has had to prepare, he said. “They told me like two weeks before or something like that. In the past, I’ve known three or four months in advance. But it’s fun. I have a lot of great fun doing it.”
Writer: Leslie Owusu