Jenni-Lyn Williams was nearly eight months pregnant when she flew to Los Angeles to film an episode of the hit ABC television show \u201cShark Tank\u201d in June.<\/p>\n
The show\u2019s producers were worried that Williams, who graduated from East Stroudsburg University in 2009, wouldn\u2019t be able to board a plane that close to giving birth. But there was no way she was missing the opportunity to be one of the show\u2019s entrepreneurs competing for business deals and to promote her new company \u201cSnarky Tea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have walked there if they wouldn\u2019t have let me fly,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
The \u201cShark Tank\u201d episode airs 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 on ABC.<\/p>\n
November is an important month for another ESU alum, singer Rich Hennessy, who is just as hungry for success. Starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, he is competing in a global talent competition called MEGASTAR with the top prize being $1 million.<\/p>\n
Hennessy, who was ESU Student Senate president before graduating in 2012, was first runner-up in MEGASTAR\u2019s test launch last year. He was flown out to San Francisco where the company shot a video of him and a YouTube interview. In September, he opened for the rock band Smash Mouth at a festival in Hennessy\u2019s hometown of Carteret, N.J. and so far his song \u201cMore\u201d has nearly 125,000 views on Facebook.<\/p>\n
The MEGASTAR competition is taking place entirely through a mobile app that is available for download now. Starting November 11, anyone with the app watch Hennessy\u2019s short video and vote. He\u2019s hoping the ESU community will give him a big boost in the contest, which features artists from around the United States and several other countries.<\/p>\n
Hennessy, who majored in business management and minored in theatre, sang in ESU\u2019s musical revue \u201cBroadway Memories\u201d under the direction of Terry L. Flatt, who\u2019s now an associate professor emeritus of music. Hennessy started taking vocal lessons while at ESU with Wendy Grice, Ph.D., an adjunct faculty member at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe opened my eyes to a whole new world of vocals and kind of built the foundation of my voice,\u201d Hennessy said. \u201cShe was a huge inspiration to me. She had faith in me which gave me confidence in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had other mentors, including Theatre Professor Margaret Joyce Ball, D.M.A., and loved his time at ESU.<\/p>\n
\u201cESU is and always will be my second home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hennessy moved to New York City last fall. For last year\u2019s MEGASTAR beta launch, he came in second out of 350 competitors. For this year\u2019s contest, there will be three rounds of voting as artists vie for the $1 million prize.<\/p>\n