Friday, March 11, 2011
By Ebony Hahn, Class of 2011
PRINCESS ANNE, MD – (March 15, 2011) – Some 200 University of Maryland Eastern Shore students turned out the Tuesday night before spring break to hear Finesse Mitchell, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, dispense advice about relationships and on being a college student.
Aside from acting and comedy, Mitchell writes a monthly column in ESSENCE magazine and is the author of “Your Girlfriends Only Know So Much.” Both offer advice to readers on love and relationships.
Five male UMES students and Mitchell took center stage at the Student Services Center theatre to create a “panel of experts” that would attempt to answer relationship questions posed by women in the audience.
“I’m very silly, so this should be pretty interesting,” he said as he kicked off the discussion on “What Men Really Want.”
Audience members took turns approaching the microphones to propose their questions and concerns.
The all-male panel answered questions that tackled candid topics of intimacy, dating and commitment.
“Women look to fall in love with the right men and men look to fall in love at the right time,” was one key point Mitchell made when discussing emotional commitment.
While Mitchell’s main message was delivering relationship advice, he also encouraged students to focus on graduating.
“Concentrate on (getting good) grades and getting your career together first and then concentrate on love and …on whatever else comes after that,” Mitchell said.
After two hours of answering the most anticipated questions proposed by audience members, the event finally came to a close. Each panel member stated his perspective of “what men really want.”
Mitchell left the guys in the audience with one last word of advice.
“Once you get a little bit older, you go with somebody who always makes you look good, feel good and you’re happy to be around them,” he said. “When you find that, you’ll know it.”
Mitchell has a new show coming out called A.N.T. Farm, where he will play the father of House of Payne star China McClain. It will air on the Disney Channel.
# # #
Ebony Hahn, an English major from Columbus, Ohio, will graduate in May 2011.
