On Saturday, Oct. 20, Kyle Kreske and Gabriella Lapointe were officially introduced as homecoming king and queen respectively to the Kean community during the homecoming half time show.

Lapointe is a senior special education and history K-12 major who has proven herself to be a proud Kean Cougar. Lapointe manages to balance her life as a student and as a platinum leader for the Leadership Institute, sister of Delta Phi Epsilon, vice president of programming for Greek Senate, senior service specialist in the Center for Leadership and Service (CLS), crew member for Love Your Melon Campus Crew and active cougar volunteer. 

Always eager to try new things, Lapointe decided to run for homecoming queen for fun. Little did she know that her efforts to gain publicity on social media would win her the election. 

"Going into my senior year this year, I told myself that I was going to make it the best, most memorable year, and winning homecoming queen [has been] a very memorable part of my year so far," said Lapointe.

Upon graduating, Lapointe hopes to become a high school history teacher. Until then, Lapointe continues to make the best out of her last year at Kean University. 

Kreske is a senior psychology major who, aside from his commitments as a student, assists Cub Scout groups and day cares in becoming more educated about seeing eye dogs. 

Kreske ran for homecoming king to break out of his shell and get to know more people. Kreske remarked that winning was one of the happiest moments of his life.

Throughout the election, he had mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness as he got to meet a lot of new people. Ultimately, he mentioned that he does not regret trying.

"Winning homecoming king and graduating for me personally [taught me to] just believe in yourself, because if you believe you can do something and you put your mind to it, you can do anything," Kreske said. "I've been told my whole life that I could not do it. No one in my town believed I was even going to graduate high school and here I am, about to graduate with my bachelor's degree in college. So if you put your mind to it, you can do anything."  

After graduating, Kreske has aspirations to earn his Psy.D. to become a child psychologist. He hopes to open up his own private practice in the future. 

Kreske and Lapointe will be leaving Kean having earned their degrees and their titles as homecoming king and queen of 2018. Kean University hopes the best for their royals as they continue to uncover new chapters in their lives.