BREANNA CURRY
Staff Writer
Junior Trent Allen has been at Pepperdine for three years and in that time he has managed to become involved in numerous Pepperdine activities. He is president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, the SLA of Dewey, a member of SGA and Psi Upsilon, works at Starbucks, is double majoring in Sociology and Communication, and is planning a “Wicked”-themed Coffeehouse. Even though he is extremely busy, Allen finds time to be a good student, hang out with friends and get some down time.
Your real name is Terence. How do you get Trent from Terence?
My freshman year of high school there was another Terence in my science class. Even though it was spelled differently, it sounded the same. Our teacher, Ms. Chin, said she would confuse our names and she would have to come up with a nickname for one of us. She then passed out information sheets that she wanted us to write our names on. I forgot to put the first E in Terence and had written Tren so I just decided to put a T at the end and make it Trent. That solved two problems I did not have to rewrite my name and Ms. Chin would be able to tell us apart. The name stuck after that.
That is kind of a random way to get a nickname.
Yeah, I guess. I had always liked the name Trent though. I used to watch the TV show “Daria,” and one of the main characters in the shows name was Trent. Plus the high school she went to on the show and the high school I attended shared a name, Lawndale High School.
I have seen all these flyers around school for the “Wicked” Coffeehouse that you are planning. How did you come up with the idea?
I heard about “Wicked” my freshman year and it sounded interesting. I was going to buy tickets to see it, but I waited too late. There were not any good seats left, and they were all singles. So I decided to wait until it came to L.A. again to see it. But I read the book my sophomore year and loved it. It is really descriptive and well written. I then went and bought the CD and fell in love with the soundtrack.
This year one of my friends is in charge of Coffeehouses on campus and I knew that this would be a really cool idea for a coffeehouse so I asked her if I could plan it.
Is the Coffeehouse going to be a reenactment of the play?
No. But people are going to be singing songs and dancing to music from the play. There are also going to be people performing at the Coffeehouse that are not doing anything from “Wicked.”
You are really involved in activities how do you mange them all and school?
I have always been really involved, ever since I was a kid. When I was younger I found out that if I was not kept busy, I would get in trouble. Most of my activities require that I keep a certain GPA. I know that my studies come first, so I don’t really have a problem with getting my school work done.
Plus, all of the activities that I am involved with are things I like to do. All of them involve being around people. I really like being around people and talking with them.
Since you like being around people, do your post-graduation plans involve working with people?
I don’t know. I always tell people if I could get paid to just be me, hanging out and talking to people, that would be what I would do.
When I came to Pepperdine I was a biology/chemistry major but then I realized that I did not want to be stuck in a lab all day. I kept changing my major, but now I like the majors I am in. Whatever I do, I know that I want to be around people.
Ok, so, in honor of Easter I have a couple of questions. Peeps: Yes or no?
Big no.
Jelly beans: Yes or no?
Yes except for the black ones. I hate black jelly beans.
Easter Bunny: Friendly little creature that hides eggs or a big scary big pink thing with overgrown teeth?
The Easter Bunny is cool. Except when you are a little kid and your parents make you go to the mall and sit on some random person’s lap.
I mean, they tell you not to talk to strangers, but then they make you sit on a stranger’s lap. Something’s wrong with that.
04-13-2006
