Students, faculty and members of the St. George community were given a view of Alex Boyé’s newest music video, and Dixie State University officials announced a new initiative last Thursday.
Before presenting the music video, President Richard “Biff” Williams announced a partnership between DSU’s Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and Teallach Partners in creating the Dixie Commercialization Fund.
According to their website, Teallach Partners is an investment and consulting firm that helps organizations meet goals and achieve successful results.
The fund is intended to support innovators with the capital and guidance they need to promote their goods and services.
The Innovation Plaza will be forming a class of various modules to teach students the different aspects of creating and launching a business. Once each module is completed, entrepreneurs can be eligible to receive support from the Dixie Commercialization Fund.
Jordon Sharp, chief marketing and communication officer, and Williams spoke about DSU’s goal of “active learning, active life,” and the video represents the DSU lifestyle because of the collaboration between the University Marketing and Communication department, DSU Films and a large number of DSU students.
“It makes me proud to be here [at DSU],” said International Adviser Joyce Meyer. “I love seeing all the departments come together to achieve a common goal.”
The video depicts an international student arriving at DSU from Nigeria, who is then taken on a magical journey by a circus ringmaster portrayed by Boyé and experiences the numerous departments and experiences both DSU and St. George have to offer.
A multitude of DSU’s departments were represented in the video. There was a scene showing students learning chemistry and a scene where students are whisked from a classroom to the Sand Hollow diving rock.
The orchestra and choir were in a scene as well as nursing students, a children’s choir of 200 and students from DSU were featured as soloists in the video.
One soloist was Ellie Felice Seegmiller, who performed as Young Fiona in Tuachan’s “Shrek the Musical,” at Dixie’s Got Talent finale concert in 2017 and was a finalist on “America’s Got Talent” in 2015.
“That [young] girl who sang, she was really good; I really liked her,” said Spencer Whitehead, a junior exercise science major from St. George.
The video received a standing ovation from all in attendance who were inspired and impressed by the video and the effort it took to make it happen.
“It made me very emotional,” said DSU alumna Jessica Jensen Orvin from Salt Lake City. “It’s amazing how our community and the students at Dixie can come together to make something so amazing.”
As of Monday evening, Boyé’s version of “A Million Dreams” featuring DSU received almost 101,500 views and more than 6,500 likes.
