After years of watching from afar, Alia Fox will soon have the opportunity to buy her own vowel.
Selected from a group of 2,000, the medical technology senior will leave today for California to be a participant on Wheel of Fortune - a feat she has tried to accomplish for years.
“Last summer the ‘Wheel Mobile’ was touring the nation, and stopped in Kalamazoo,” Fox said. “I put my name in the bin for them to draw and I didn’t really think I had a huge chance. But a half hour before I left, they drew my name.
“I was totally freaking out.”
Once Fox’s name was drawn with 20 others, she was invited to play a mini-version of the famous word game on stage. The game itself was an audition for the real thing and the seven contestants chosen were given a year and a half window to prepare.
That was in August - and now Fox is ready for television.
“I am trying not to be nervous and just as excited as possible,” she said. “I did get myself this far.
“I just want to get on there and say ‘hi’ to MSU on national television.”
Wheel of Fortune promotions director Lisa Dee in Los Angeles said the way Fox was chosen is how most of the contestants get on the show.
“The way the ‘Wheel Mobile’ works is we take it all over the country in search of contestants,” she said. “Everyone fills out a big application and we choose names out of random for people to play the game.”
Dee said it’s a way for the show’s staff to find out potential personalities and see if they would be good on the show.
“I like to think of the show as a top-notch university,” she said. “You have to have top-notch grades to get in there, and to be on the show, you have to have everything in favor for you.
“You could be the very best puzzle solver, but if you look like you are having a root canal while doing it, it’s not fun for an audience to watch.
“You have to have the whole package.”
But what really makes the show are the contestants, she said.
“Pat and Vanna are incredible, but the show is great because the contestants are fun to watch and they are great game players,” Dee said. “Viewers get impatient. They want to see people make quick, quick decisions and know what they are doing.”
And Fox’s fiancé, Scott McGee, who will travel with her to the show, says Fox knows what she is doing.
“She is a real smart girl and I wasn’t too surprised when she was accepted on the show,” said McGee, a Kalamazoo resident. “She is really good at that game, and I figure she should do really good.”
