As the only male in a Family in Cross Cultural Perspectives class, Chandler Jones, an Auburn University senior in Radio Television and Film, held the lone masculine opinion on raising a family amidst 35 women. It seemed like a promising ratio.
Then, two weeks into the semester, Cam Newton walked in.
“If anything, it made the class more relaxed,” Jones said. “We’re all just hanging out talking about things and Cam’s talking about things and we’re all laughing at each other. Everything that happens is so funny because its so out of the ordinary.”
Jones, who as frontman for eclectic local folk act Adventure the Great happens to know at least a little about celebrity himself, said he wasn’t as fazed by the star’s presence as his classmates, despite the occasional surreal moment, like Cam’s belated Valentines surprise from the Wesley Foundation.
“My dad called to tell me he saw me on Youtube and sent the link to the video of them singing to him,” Jones said. “My family found that video before I even did.”
As the only two male voices in a discussion-based class, Jones said he and Newton have developed a unique friendship in the three weeks they’ve had class together.
“We talk about how we’ve got to hone in on our testosterone in the class because we’re the only ones that have it,” Jones said.
Jones said he would love to have Newton in a music video and plans to invite him to Transcendence Of Time, Adventure The Great’s first show in Auburn since October.
“On March 1 we are completely transforming Mama Mocha’s Emporium, it’s gonna be a really crazy night.”
Jones said being around Newton in class has given him a different perspective on celebrity life.
“I can’t imagine going to class every day at a school where there’s a statue of myself like right down the sidewalk,” Jones said. “To not have that go to your head is an incredible accomplishment and I think he’s done that.”

Newton may be a franchise NFL quarterback with his own clothing line, but Jones says that in the classroom none of that matters.
“He happens to be good at football like a carpenter happens to be good at working with wood,” Jones said. “We all have our things. It’s easy to get excited because he’s such a prominent figure but, reality is, we’re all doing the same sort of thing.”
And this semester, Chandler Jones and Cam Newton are doing the same thing in class full of coeds.
“I knew that the Human Development and Family Studies department was primarily female but, yeah,” Jones said, laughing. “In a way I feel like we gotta stick together.”
More Cam in College: Cam Newton, intramural basketball star, Cam Newton brings donuts to class ‘since it was Thursday’, Jackie Newton tells TWER: If Cam was going back to school, he was going back to Auburn, Auburn Phi Mu says Singing Valentine to Cam Newton started as a joke, but the invitation to formal still stands.
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