Arya Toufanian and Jeffrie “Yofray” Ray have spent the past 11 months traveling the country and touring college campuses to feature on their newest YouTube phenomenon, “I’m Shmacked.”
The crew travels across the country to colleges notorious for over-the-top parties and creates compilation videos. This week, Toufanian has been exploring Michigan State University — but he isn’t inquiring his enrollment status — he’s in search of the biggest and wildest parties to feature in their series.
“The students (at MSU) seem very ambitious and hardworking, (which is) a very nice learning environment contrasted with how some other schools are set up,” he said.
Toufanian, who is a junior at George Washington University, said the videos on their YouTube page offer high schoolers a perspective not provided by admissions offices — the party scene.
“They can see how fun these good, academic colleges are,” he said. “They work hard in high school to end up at a fun and engaging university.”
When Toufanian arrived in East Lansing, he was greeted by the “party scene,” led by kinesiology freshman Takudzwa Kubvoruno.
With more than 58,000 followers on Twitter, Kubvoruno promoted the “I’m Shmacked” week to MSU students with one goal in mind: beat Michigan.
“I’m Shmacked” was in Ann Arbor at the beginning of the year to create a video of the school’s welcome week. The video has remained popular on YouTube, but Kubvoruno said the Wolverines have nothing on MSU.
“Our main goal is to beat the Michigan (video),” he said. “I know we’re going to with the rest of the week’s plans.”
Marketing sophomore Cameron Inniss was the student who convinced “I’m Shmacked” to come to MSU. Because it has become popular, Inniss said there were several contracts involved to bring Toufanian to MSU; but the hassle paid off.
Toufanian was at The Landshark, 101 E. Grand River Ave., Wednesday and students didn’t hesitate to follow the videographer.
“We reached capacity in the first five minutes and had to shut down and reopen, ” Inniss said. “Students seem to be loving the camera. ”
For his first time in East Lansing, Toufanian will be making appearances at Life in Color, formerly known as DayGlow, and various fraternities and sororities. He will be commuting to Ann Arbor to get tailgate footage Sunday.
Ultimately, East Lansing is just one stop of many for Toufanian.
“We are expanding quickly,” Toufanian said. “We have big plans, and time will tell, I suppose.”
Toufanian said he and his partner Ray currently are filming at University of Miami and are on to something great.
“Our vision is strong, and our ambition and network stronger,” Toufanian said.
In the end, Kubvoruno said this week’s student participation has been a rare occurrence at MSU.
“You never see a week where kids are this excited,” he said.
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