DECATUR, Ill. – 2024 New Student Welcome Week is an exciting time for the more than 400 incoming Millikin University students as they learn more about becoming successful college students and making those initial connections with friends that will last for years.
Another connection that those first-year students undoubtedly made was with Millikin senior Multimedia Communications major Corey Cebulski. As one of the Student Experience Ambassadors (SEAs) shepherding the group through Orientation, Corey is often featured as a face of Millikin and featured on Big Blue social media videos. It creates a connection between the new students and Corey before stepping foot on campus and meeting him in person.
“As a SEA, we are essentially their main line of communication from students to staff, as well as the larger community on campus. We are often the first upperclassmen they'll see when they pull up in their cars and move into their dorms. I still get nervous starting a new school year because there's 400-plus new people on campus that I'm going to get to know now,” Corey said. “At Orientation, I introduced myself to someone, and he said, ‘I know who you are, you're the guy in the videos.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, I guess you do know who I am.’ I would have never thought I would be on that level with other people. It can be very easy to be a number or just another face on campus.”
Corey felt precisely that way before deciding to transfer to Millikin. Growing up in Mahomet, Ill., he decided to enroll in Parkland College in the Nursing program but felt like he never quite felt connected with the program and his fellow students.
“I went through my experience at Parkland during COVID, and it was challenging to make friends. I would legitimately sit in my car and eat lunch by myself every day because I couldn't sit in the cafeteria,” he said. “I was a commuter student, so I didn't have anywhere to live on campus. I would have to drive five minutes down the road and find somewhere to eat and just eat by myself.”
A random phone call from a former track coach brought Millikin to Corey’s attention. His high school track and field coach, Carrol Whitehouse, joined Millikin’s Track and Field staff and looked to Corey to help reestablish the Big Blue pole vaulting program.
“I was about to transfer away from Parkland, and literally an hour before I signed up, I got a call from Coach Whitehouse. He told me that he thought I was a great fit at Millikin and that it would be a great opportunity for me to take my next steps to finish up my career,” Corey said. “The coaching staff took me and my mom on a very personalized visit. We walked around campus, and I met some of the team, and I absolutely loved it. From there, I was like, this is where I want to be the next two or three years.”
Corey decided to focus on Multimedia Communication as his major, which would let him expand his love of storytelling.
“My favorite part about being a Multimedia Communications major is it's not just set on one thing. It's through all mediums, including storytelling, digital media, voiceover, and film,” he said. “There's a plethora of things you can do with it, and that's why I love my major. Every semester, I do something different, but it's all focused on a different aspect of the same thing coming together. When you're watching a movie, there's the visuals, there's the animation, there's the music, there's the voiceover. All those things come together. Each semester, I learn a different piece of that, which is super fun.”
Specifically, Corey sees his future career aspirations in voiceover for video games, which he sees as the best medium for storytelling.
“If you are watching a movie and you doze off, the movie is going to progress whether you're connected with it or not,” he said. “But if you're playing a video game, the story only progresses if you do. When you walk through games like ‘Uncharted’ or ‘The Last of Us’ or even games like 'Pac-Man,’ you can't go to the next level unless you are engaged with what you're doing. It’s the best medium for storytelling because it’s interactive storytelling.”
Corey has a goal of meeting Millikin alumna Jodi Benson ’93, who has had an outstanding voice acting resume as the voice of Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” and as Barbie in the “Toy Story” franchise.
“For me, a big pull for Millikin was that one of the most famous alumni is Jody Benson, and knowing how incredibly successful she was coming out of Millikin. She is an amazing performer, and seeing how incredibly successful she's been, if she can do this, then I'm willing to take a gamble on that too,” Corey said. “After I graduate, I’ll be doing my best to try and get my foot in the door in the industry, and the question is, what do I bring to the table that makes me different from other people?”
One interest of Corey’s that sets him apart from the average college student, is that he possibly sees himself one day stepping into Christian ministry. As a member of Millikin’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), he has built a strong support network and has been able to use his gift of storytelling to share the message of his faith.
“Like when I first joined FCA, I thought to myself, I'm going to say yes to this. But also, I'm walking into a room with 25 people I don't know. It’s OK that nobody knows you, but that's still nerve-wracking. I get one first impression with all these people. But if I wasn't willing to say yes, I wouldn't have the friends that I have now, the community that I have now, the opportunities that I have now,” Corey said. “If you're coming into college and longing for that community, be willing to say yes. Be willing to be the funny guy. Be willing to get up and do something daring in front of 500 people because you'll get people's attention. Could it backfire? Yes, it always could, but I'd much rather step up, take a risk, and have it backfire than never try it.”
