The UMF rugby team and athletic department sponsored the event.

FARMINGTON – Nationally known alcohol education speaker Carolyn Cornelison spoke Tuesday night at the University of Maine at Farmington to a responsive crowd.

Her program, Courage to Care, takes a realistic look at college drinking, taking responsibility, recognizing abuse and helping those with alcohol problems. “This was a great group,” Cornelison said.

Thanks to the UMF men’s rugby team in conjunction with the Department of Athletics, Cornelison spoke about her three keys to caring: knowledge, sensitivity and courage.

With her animated and comedic style, Cornelison drew laughter by sharing some of her college experiences as both a sorority member and athlete. The stories ranged from her first ever sip of alcohol to her eventual acceptance of a problem.

She discredited common rumors or half truths about the level of intoxication reached when drinking from straws or whether marijuana will affect a person using it for the first time.

“I didn’t even know I had a problem, unfortunately everyone else did,” said Cornelison.

Included in her talk were the topics of repression, behavioral changes and the statistic that 25 percent of college students abuse alcohol.

News of the death of her close friend and fellow sorority sister in a drunken driving accident in 1990 sparked Cornelison to confront the problem head on, she said. After the accident her friends admitted that they always thought that she’d be the one, she said.

In the last year alone there have been 21 deaths of college students in the United States attributed to alcohol abuse, and Cornelison was careful to point out that the one common denominator of all the cases was the fact that each person was left alone.

Twenty years into her recovery and having traveled to over 350 college campuses, Cornelison hopes to turn a few heads.