Many talented and creative people have been passing through the halls of Fanshawe College over the past 40 or so years, so it's no surprise that every once in a while, someone makes it big. People like ET Canada's Cheryl Hickey, Survivorman Les Stroud, and Academy Award winner Paul Haggis all attended Fanshawe.

Lately, there has been a buzz around the college about another name that will someday be added to that list, and what a name it is. Eighteen-year-old Haviah Mighty is in her first year of the Music Industry Arts (MIA) program and is a Resident Advisor at Kestral Court. Upon meeting her, she seems like a normal college student, but she's anything but average.

Mighty is a singer, rapper, writer and producer, and she is a seriously talented woman. If anything, she has every right to brag about her skills, but she possesses a confident modesty that makes her extremely charming.

Her music, which is often compared to that of Nicki Minaj, varies from rap and hip-hop to catchy top-40 music that makes you want to dance. Mighty also has a sense of humour that can be seen in her music video and song "Look At My Hair," a parody cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now." Mighty just released her five-song EP, Eighteen, this fall.

Mighty grew up in a musical family; all her sisters play piano and one is even a piano teacher. She began taking vocal training when she was four years old, and has since made it to the final audition of the Broadway show The Lion King in Toronto, and in 2009 won a competition hosted by Chris Brown Entertainment for creating the best remix of his song "I Can Transform Ya." She has even opened for big names like Danny Fernandez, Shawn Desman and Karl Wolf.

In terms of lyrics, her songs cover a wide variety of topics. "It ranges from being fun songs you can dance at a club to, to important issues teenagers face and that certain groups face," said Mighty. "It depends on the beat that either I've created or that was given to me, and the feeling it has. What I feel that an audience would gauge from it is where the lyrical content would manifest, and then I write based on what the beat makes me feel," she said of her creative process.

Alex Foster-Roman, a fellow MIA student and Mighty's hype man, who gets the crowed pumped up at her shows, is a definite fan. "She's really versatile; she can do a lot of different things, like produce a lot of her own stuff and sing and rap at the same time. I kinda help her out when she performs, so I know she's a good performer," he said. "She has an abundance of swag."

Swag aside, what makes Mighty stand out from many other up-andcomers is her brain: she's intelligent, grounded and has a firm grasp on the reality of the music industry. "I'm (at Fanshawe) to learn everything in terms of engineering and production. I don't want anything to hold me back in the sense that I won't have the knowledge to do it myself … I want to be able to do everything myself so that when things hold you back, which they often do in the music industry, I'm not going to be the artist that's held back," she said.

As for her future, Mighty plans on moving to the United States where she can pursue her music career as an artist and producer. "Producing for other people is definitely an option, but I think being an artist, vocals are more my focus at this time. I'm building more as a producer, I know how to produce for myself very well, but I'm not sure if I can produce for other people. Eventually, one day, for sure I'll be there, but it would be better to collaborate with people for songs ... I think that's more my focus at this time."

MIA student Paige LaButte knows that Mighty is someone to watch. "I think her music is real. She's super talented, the fact that she can write, sing, rap, do it all. She's got a big future. She's got so many opportunities because there's so many different roads that she can go down, so many options."

One thing is certain, no matter where Haviah Mighty ends up, she will leave a lasting impression on everyone she meets.

You can check out Mighty for yourself when she opens for Mic Lordz & Sauce Funky at the Out Back Shack on November 25 — tickets are available at the Biz Booth.

For more information on Haviah Mighty, find her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @haviahmighty or visit her website haviahmighty.com. She can also be found on YouTube and her song "Drinks On Go" can be downloaded on iTunes.