(BLACK PR WIRE/FAMU-TALLAHASSEE) – “Heavy is the burden that wears the crown” is a proverb all too familiar to Brandon Johnson, 22, a senior music education student from Darlington, S.C. He is striving to bring acclaim to the university by competing in the Verizon Wireless Ultimate Reign competition.

“Verizon Wireless is working with The Leadership for Queens and The Kings’ Konnection to promote the competition,” said Johnson. “It will allow duly elected or appointed queens and kings of HBCUs to bring awareness and support to their respective community service platforms while celebrating the pride in and history of their respective schools.”

The competition is an outlet for campus royalty to make a difference in their community by providing the winner with $10,000 towards a community service initiative. Each candidate has a profile with a video that can be found on the voting site. The top six kings and queens will progress to the final round of judging where the overall winner will be selected.

“I plan on doing an annual day of fellowship with the community where we will be feeding the community, providing door prizes, laundry detergent, live gospel performances, clothes drive, school supplies for children and more,” said Johnson.

Johnson said he was inspired to enter the competition because BCU has been overlooked for many years and he wants to take the universities’ campaign global. For Johnson, this campaign is a form of recruitment as well. “This allows leaders from many different institutions to showcase their campuses and the quality of leaders that their campuses produce,” said Johnson.

The competition consists of royal court leadership from Coppin State, Delaware State, Florida Memorial, Fort Valley State, Grambling State, Harris-Stowe State, Jackson State, Savannah State, Texas Southern, and Virginia State Universities as well as Talladega College and J.F. Drake State Community & Technical College.

Voters also have the chance to win a BlackBerry Z10 for their daily votes and hashtag tweets. For more information on the competition or to view candidate profiles, visit www.verizoninsider.com/the-ultimate-reign.


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