When your sitting at home at night couch surfing,  do you ever stop and wonder,  “whatever happened to William Hung?” You no longer have sit and wonder, the ex-American Idol hopeful has returned to college.

William Hung — who received 15 minutes of fame and a recording contract for his rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” — is currently working towards his bachelor’s degree in math education at California State University at Northridge.

According to his local college newspaper, Daily Sundial:

While he’s currently resigned to teaching, the Hong Kong native said his brush with stardom almost never happened.

“Going to the audition was close to a last minute decision, actually,” Hung told the Daily Sundial. “I heard on the news that there was going to be an audition. It was literally only a few days before that I found out about it.”

Hung added he went into the auditions with only his love for music, a talent show victory from his youth and no expectations. “I just made a spontaneous decision to say, ‘Well you know what, hundreds of thousands of people try out every year,’” he told the Daily Sundial. “‘So I’ll try out and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out then there is nothing wrong with that.” 

While he didn’t make it through to Idol’s third-season Hollywood Round, his almost unrecognizable version of “She Bangs” during a January 2004 Idol broadcast struck a chord with fans and Koch Records, which inked him to a recording contract.

William goes on to say he appreciates the American Idol’s fan support and it has allowed him to pursue his 15 minutes of fame. Now that the spotlight has faded, he has returned to his first love of engineering, and he plans on pursuing a career in teaching. Very noble. (Ya gotta love his “promo” shot.)