"Strategy, the Luck of the Wheel, and Fate" Pays Off for Methodist University Student

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 5, 2007
MARIA SIKORYAK-ROBINS
DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS

FAYETTEVILLE, NC—Methodist University student Debra Teasley will appear during Country Music Stars Week on the game show Wheel of Fortune airing on Feb. 14, 2007.

After seeing an advertisement in November for auditions at the Crab Tree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C., Teasley—on a whim—decided to try her luck one Saturday and attend the audition.

“There were a lot of people there,” recalled Teasley. She arrived late on Saturday, but that still allowed her the chance to develop a strategy to help her at the following day’s audition. The next day came and Teasley decided to make an attempt to be on stage again. This time she succeeded and made it.

Following the second audition on Sunday, she was contacted both by mail and by e-mail for the closed audition on Nov. 26 in Cary, N.C. “Technically I had two appointments with different times for the closed audition on the same day,” said Teasley. “It was meant for me to be there.”

She was one of 60 contestants invited back.

“This is when I knew I needed to shine a little bit,” she said. Midway through the audition, 36 contestants had been let go and Teasley was one of the 24 remaining.

Towards the end of December, she received a call from Los Angeles asking her if she could be in Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 13 for the taping. This was a special three-week taping that would be happening at the Convention Center in Charleston, S.C. (Vanna’s home state). Two weeks would feature scenes of the South Carolina Lowcountry and North Myrtle Beach, and the third week would feature country music stars paired up with contestants playing for charity. She was asked if she could make this appointment.

“You don’t turn down Wheel of Fortune,” said Teasley.

The first order of business at the taping involved filling out paperwork and reviewing the legalities of the program. Teasley and the chosen contestants were sectioned off from everyone. Rehearsals were held to practice spinning the wheel and calling out letters. Fifteen minutes prior to the taping, the country music stars came out. “It was wild seeing all those cameras, the lights,” she remembered. Teasley was paired up with Richie McDonald of Lonestar. “He is a sensational man, a loving spirit, and I could not have asked for a better partner,” she said.

“My primary focus was on that puzzle and I asked Richie to focus on the wheel. We worked together as a team and he picked it up in the end,” she said.

According to Teasley, she relied on strategy from the very beginning, the luck of the wheel, and fate knowing that it was all going to play out in the end. Teasley and McDonald can be seen on Feb. 14, 2007. Organizations such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and adoptaplatoon.org will benefit from the week’s fortunes.

Teasley is currently pursuing a bachelor of science degree in business administration with a concentration in health care.

Methodist University is Fayetteville’s only independent, four-year institution of higher education. The University enrolls 2,147 students from 41 states and 30 countries. For more information contact the Office of University Relations at (910) 630-7043/7114.