A college student who decided to try drinking and got drunk ended up in jail because she stole a chicken suit from a guy outside a chicken diner.

Years later, a question on her bar exam asked if she had ever been arrested. One night and one question decided the fate of the Harvard law student.

Mike Green, a motivational speaker and a recovering alcoholic of 25 years, recounted this story to an audience of about 600 students at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium Wednesday night.

Green, who was speaking on the topic of substance abuse, focused on the life-long consequences of one night’s irresponsibility.

He used jokes, questions to the audience, personal stories and props like shot glasses, liquor bottles and T-shirts to get his message across to the audience.

Green, who was an alcoholic in college and a bartender for almost 10 years, was able to connect with the students using his personal stories. In one such story, he recalled the time when he passed out drunk in the wrong house after running eight blocks from a pseudo police siren.

“He came down to our level and didn’t make us seem dumb,” said Larkin Harris, a freshman undecided major who attended the discussion. “He didn’t lecture.”

Green said that he did not expect students to give up drinking and made a distinction between drinking socially and getting drunk.

He held up a shot glass and said that it could be looked at as a sipping glass or as a killer shot.

“This is used to fill oil in your car, not as a social cocktail glass,” said Green as he held up a funnel in his hand.

Green gave the audience practical reasons to reconsider their drinking habits.

An average drinker can spend up to $10,000 on beer in his or her four years of college.