Helping students make good decisions about the use and abuse about alcohol and other drugs.
Partying smart and keeping friends safe is Erica Upshaw’s first priority.
I feel she has empowered our students to speak up and step up when needed. Her approach and story made a huge impact on our students. I heard from many people that there was considerable amounts of interaction/talking about Erica's presentation in the dorms after her keynote. I have never heard this before about any other speaker we have had on campus. Many coaches also noted that their students were talking about her and gave positive feedback on her.
Brian Williams, State University of New York at New Paltz
Erica came to California State University, Chico for NCAAW last Fall. Our students were engaged and loved her message, life story and presentation! Over 600 students and community members were in attendance on the night of her presentation and you could just feel the energy in the room and the receptiveness to what Erica was sharing. She received a standing ovation and there was a line of students wanting to thank her and talk to her at the end of the evening. I would not hesitate to bring Erica back to Chico State in the future to again enlighten our students with her knowledge. If you are looking for a speaker to engage and captivate your students with a message they can relate to, I truly recommend Erica.
Theresa Fagouri, California State University, Chico
As the VP on IFC at MSU, I knew I needed to take action to eliminate alcohol and drug related deaths on campus. I truly believe that Erica’s presentation tonight will make this ambitious idea come to fruition. Our members responded so well to Erica – not only did they not mind sitting through a talk on alcohol and drugs, hundreds of our members tweeted about it. I can’t imagine one detail that would make Erica more effective in saving lives.
Noah Berger, Michigan State University
Erica’s program impacted the students in a very personal way with the conversations sparked by her story continuing long after the program. Her approach is one-part reality check combined with one-part prevention program. Students truly felt connected to her and her brother, and shared in the agonizing realization that they have the power to prevent alcohol related tragedies from occurring.
Kyle Pendleton, Purdue University
Keynotes
- Keep Friendship Alive
Keep Friendship Alive
In 2000, a popular student named Joey Upshaw died of a lethal dose of the drug GHB and alcohol. To many, Joey had seemed like the perfect student: good grades, popular, fraternity leader. By everyone’s estimation, he was a good kid. But like many “good kids” in his social group, Joey spent his weekends mixing recreational drugs and large quantities of alcohol. He and his friends figured they worked hard, so they had the prerogative to play hard, too.
Joey’s sister, Erica, attended the same school, the same parties, and took part in many of the same activities. Two years younger than Joey, Erica was also a member of a Greek chapter and partied alongside her brother. Looking back, she realizes that the high-risk drinking and drug abuse in which she and Joey engaged was incredibly dangerous. In the months and years that followed Joey’s death, she has had to come to terms with the reckless attitudes she and her friends had about drugs and alcohol. If it could take the life of her brother—the All-American guy next door—it could happen to many other students who casually abuse substances on the weekends.
Now in her mid-20’s, Erica does a fantastic job of speaking to students from a point of view close to theirs. Using videos, first-hand stories and talking about her and her brother’s risky behavior, she helps students realize that a party-centric attitude in college can be deadly. She reminds them that 1,700 college students die from alcohol related deaths each year in the U.S., drawing on the stories of other young men and women whose harmful choices led to the most frightening outcomes. Erica empowers her audience to take action, talk to each other and question abuse of alcohol and drugs in their campus community.
This keynote isn’t simply a story of personal loss. It’s a challenge to today’s students to openly question behavior in their social scene that many know to be abusive and potentially fatal. She doesn’t preach, but she lends a young, relevant voice to the plea for reason and self-control. She urges students to question the normalcy of wide-spread abuse of alcohol and drugs at every campus.
“Everyone deserves to have a good time in college,” Erica says. “But partying smart and keeping friends safe need to be our first priority.”
Erica's Bio
Erica’s keynote, Keep Friendship Alive, has reached more than 100,000 students and she continues to bring innovative drug and alcohol education initiatives to schools across the country. In 2009 and 2010 she won honors as a top 5 finalist for “Best Speaker”, nominated by college students and administrators in Campus Activities Magazine. Currently, Erica is working to make Keep Friendship Alive a non-profit organization.
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