Photo By Emily Casilio
SOU junior Brianne Sherman celebrates her game show winnings at a party thrown in her honor at Kobe, Tuesday Nov. 11.

It’s not often that an SOU student makes more in a week than most university professors do in an entire year. Brianne Sherman did it in two days.

Sherman didn’t grow up watching TV. In fact, she got cable for the first time this year and would sometimes watch game shows like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” while getting ready for work. Little did the SOU junior know that she would be sitting in the “hot seat” herself in September and walk away with $250,000.

“I still can’t believe it happened- I still can’t believe I did that,” Sherman said. “I came back to the hotel and I sat in the bath tub and cried.”

Sherman taped the Nov. 10 and 11 showing and brought it to Kobe Sushi restaurant where she waitresses part-time. Co-workers and friends joined in to watch and celebrate as the 21-year-old from Bellingham, Wash., walked away with more money than anyone so far on the show this year.

Sherman, who is studying French and political science, auditioned for the game show in Sacramento, Calif., this summer.

Although she studied as much as possible before the show by watching “Jeopardy,” doing quizzes online; even having co-workers quiz her after her waitressing shift she said, “It really just comes down to knowing it.”

“Really, what I’m planning to do is pretend I don’t have it, that way I won’t blow it all in a year,” Sherman said.

She plans to use the money to fund a previously planned internship in France next year and to help out her family. Part of her winnings will go to helping her younger sisters pay for college tuition. She also plans to take her mother, Nanette McDowell, who resides in Bellingham, Wash., on a vacation.

“My mom’s got three girls in college right now and I really want to do something nice for her,” Sherman said.

McDowell said she would have been proud of her daughter even if she had not won the prize.

“I told her it didn’t matter if she won, it was just amazing that she had the guts [to do it],” McDowell said. “I would say she’s a generous person by nature. She adores her sisters and I think she feels like this is a gift.”

McDowell admitted that she got rid of TV when the girls were growing up.

Sherman was always competitive and all three of the girls enjoyed playing cards, doing crosswords and reading trivial pursuit cards to each other.

“They are close in age and close to each other,” McDowell said of her daughters.

Brianne, 21, Lauren, 20 and Danielle, 18 all relay the same message about one another as well.

Lauren, who attends college in Ashville, NC was not surprised to see her older sister excel on the nightly game show. Nor was she in the least surprised when finding out her older sister wanted to spread the wealth.

“She’s always been very family-oriented,” Lauren said.

Lauren received a call after Brianne won her award but was not able to talk about the amount of money. Lauren commented that Brianne did well to keep it under wraps.

“I was really happy for her. It was pretty emotional,” Lauren said, after watching the showing.

Show host Meredith Vierra looked stunned at some moments and would ask, “How did you know that?” Breann’s youngest sister Danielle, was not surprised at her older sister’s self-assurance.

“She’s pretty confident,” Danielle said, who was unable to watch the showing.

Danielle, who goes to Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., was also not surprised at her sister’s generosity although she said “she obviously didn’t have to do that.”

SOU senior Danny Moffat, also from Bellingham, Wash., was among several friends gathered for the show-taping in support of Brianne. Moffat, who has known Brianne since seventh grade said “I expected her to go pretty far.”

“It was remarkable to see how calm she was,” he said.

Brianne and boyfriend Patrick O’Brien of Medford, both travelled to New York in September in order to tape the show which aired on KOBI-5. It was the couples’ first time to the Big Apple. They took in one of the last baseball games at Yankee stadium as well as a Broadway musical before they headed back.

Vierra sent Brianne a hand written note after the show taping.

“She was so nice,” Brianne said. “ She cracked jokes in between [commercials].”

“Neither of us wanted to leave [New York],” O’Brien said at the taped showing.

“She did much better [on the show] than I could do.” To which Brianne argued, “That’s not true.”

“It would have been a great trip even without the show,” Brianne said.