By Liliana Cipriano
With positive thoughts, a vivacious character and an enormous amount of energy pumping through her blood, senior public relations major Sarah Voska took the hot seat at “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” with confidence.
Voska is a senator of the Student Government Association, Chairperson of the Sports Board and serves on the Club Affairs Committee. She has been awarded senator of the month and obtains a decent GPA. Most people might say she has much going for her and after Voska took home $64,000 from the show, some may even say she is a lucky person. However, Voska has experienced great tragedy before she stumbled on some luck.
During the past several years, Voska’s world turned upside down after learning that her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. With the news of one of her parents being sick, Voska stayed strong for her family, always thinking they could get through this. After several months, Voska’s father was diagnosed with the same type of cancer with the exception that his was spreading faster into his liver and lungs. Within four months, Voska’s father passed away and the student loans for college that Voska’s father had cosigned were dropped. “With my father no longer being the co-signer my loans were taken away and I was left with no way to pay for school,” Voska said.
With Voska’s mother being sick, she was not eligible to take out any other loans leaving her with no options. The clouds started to get darker over Voska’s head when she discovered that she would not be able to graduate when she was expected because she was misadvised. Voska couldn’t find money for the months she expected to be at the University and now she had to pay for extra time because of being misadvised. After being left with nowhere to turn to for money, Voska considered dropping out of school until her boyfriend found the key to solve her problems.
“My boyfriend, Craig Thomas is Vice President of Student Government and talked to the Dean of Students Anita Ellis and told her my story,” Voska said. After Ellis heard the story and discovered that Voska meet qualifications for an endowment in Ellis’s father’s name who also passed away from cancer, Voska received money to help pay her tuition and guidance from Ellis to receive financial aid. “Anita helped not only as an administrator but as a friend,” Voska said.
Voska’s luck started to change for the better and Thomas led her in the right direction. Voska and Thomas met Sophmore year through a mutual friend. “Valentines Day means a lot to us because it was the first time that we actually told each other how we felt for the first time,” said Thomas. When he heard that the producers for “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” were at the University looking for students to audition, he encouraged Voska to take the test. “After Craig and I took the test we were disagreeing on all the answers,” Voska said.
After a few weeks, Voska received a post card and phone call letting her know that she was picked and would receive a free trip to Disney World, where the show would be aired.
“I brought my boyfriend and brother with me where we stayed complementary from Jan. 7th to the 10th at a new resort called Pop Century,” Voska said.
Some students from colleges around the nation were filmed going on rides for promotions. The students who were chosen to be on the show also received park hoper passes so they didn’t have to buy tickets or wait in line.
“On Friday I was one of the 12 students that were chosen to be aired on College week,” Voska said.
On the day Voska was aired, she entered the room and sat in the hot seat with the mindset of either way she felt she is already a winner.
“I told Sarah she would do good and I told her not to be nervous and no matter how she did everything would be cool,” Thomas said.
Voska kept calm and was herself. “I’m loud and make friends very easily I wasn’t nervous at all,” Voska said.
As she tackled her questions one by one the money grew higher. “My biggest fear was losing quickly and feeling stupid in front of 600 people in the audience,” Voska said.
She felt the power of the audience each time the answer was correct by supporting her with roaring cheers and clapping. Voska shared some of her personal misfortune on air, and with her high-energy optimism and story, she filled the room with a lively spirit making the audience, the viewers and Meredith root for her to reach the million-dollar question.
“After I won Meredith hugged me and said ‘if anyone deserves this it’s you’ and I went back stage and found the production people with tears in their eyes,” Voska said.
Voska still finds herself in shock over her winning. “I still get giddy and say ‘Oh my God! Oh my God,'” Voska said.
Voska plans to invest most of her money after she treats herself to corrective eye surgery.
“She is one of the nicest people I know and is always going out of her way to help people,” Thomas said. “It was good to see someone who was deserving to win the money.”
Voska learned a few things from this experience that she will always remember. “You should always keep your head high and never give up,” Voska said. “I was about to give up in so many ways and I learned I had to go on regardless of the situation or circumstance because tomorrow will still come.