Your 2022 Purple Side leader 

Elicia Freeman

By: Esclavon Prewitt, Montevallo, Ala

Senior vocal performance major and theatre minor Elicia (Licee) Freeman is a well-known figure around campus. She isn’t your typical student though, she is the 2021–2022 Purple side leader. 

When Freeman arrived on campus in 2018, she felt like she was made for the purple side. In the spring of 2021, she knew she was ready to be Montevallo’s Purple side leader. 

Freeman said, ” I feel like being a leader was something I secretly always want to do but having a lot of people telling me they thought I would be a good leader for purple side definitely gave me the push I needed to do it.”

Freeman starts her day just like any other student on campus. She wakes up, gets ready for class, and makes sure she has everything for the day.

Her busiest day of the year was the Saturday on the final day of college night, she recalled the day, she said, “I attended a purple vintage brunch alongside her co-leader, Katy. Then I proceeded to park my car at the caf and sprinted over to Anna Irving where all four leaders were asked to pop over for the alumni lunch. . Afterwards, I saw one heck of a basketball game and cheer performance (that I got to make a surprise appearance in) met with a few members of the college night committee to go over the preproduction points.

She continued “My friends did my hair and makeup and I finished getting dressed up for the show. Then showtime happened and I couldn’t have been more proud of our cast and everyone that helped put up such an awesome show. . As gold side heard their catchphrase we held our PVs high looking out to our wonderful purple family and the vintages that gave us all the love and support we needed at that moment. After, we had another circle up, probably my favorite circle up yet. I got to stand with my family that worked so hard for months and told them that we still won no matter what the results were because we played as friends, as a family, as purples.”

Freeman has enjoyed her year, she has helped put together shows, coach various sports and keep spirits up on campus. She said if she had to describe her role in one word it would be “empowering” Freeman said “. No one knows all the work that goes into being a leader until you are one. I was doing this on top of a very demanding major plus working on my minor and doing a lot of other things outside of classes and purple side.

She continued, “Being able to have a successful year as leader, getting everything I needed to get done, while also dealing with the ups and downs of life made me feel like I can and will be able to handle anything that comes my way.”

Though she has many accomplishments, her journey is far from over. Freeman plans on getting her master’s in voice performance with hopes that she can do it professionally. She just finished her eighth audition for grad school this past week and is waiting to hear back from the schools.

Freeman wanted to leave by saying “While we may not have “won” this season of college night, we had the most amazing time doing it. Getting able to see all the people in the athletics teams, cheer team, cast, side space, spirit, and more have fun was such a beautiful sight. That’s truly what this whole tradition is about. It’s about the love and the bonds and how we as students get to create something so original and magical.”