The Daily Gamecock

Students manage classes, crown

	<p>Miss Wade Hampton-Taylors Amanda Bishop</p>
Miss Wade Hampton-Taylors Amanda Bishop

USC women prepare for state, national pageants

For LaQuita “KD” Cowart, weeks sometimes never end.

Cowart, who holds the title of Miss Capital City 2013, is in the final days of preparation for the Miss Black South Carolina pageant, being held at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg Saturday night. She wears high heels constantly — even while at home in her sweatpants — and practices possible interview questions with her mentor, a former Miss Black New Jersey, via Skype. On Saturdays and Sundays, she is “booked solid.” She has rode in parades and held events with city leaders like Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. But pageantry isn’t the only thing in her life.

Cowart will graduate from USC in May with a master’s in social work and serves as an intern with the Lexington County Department of Social Services.

“I don’t know how I do it,” Cowart said, when asked how she balances it all. “I just keep going and keep going … It’s a very exhausting job, but I love what I do.”

Her career path is actually what led her to the pageant world. While completing her undergraduate studies at Shaw University, she served as a mentor to younger women competing in area teenage pageants. Now a titleholder herself, Cowart has used her crown to further her mentorship.

“Every girl wants to be a princess. They see a crown and a sash, they think ‘princess.’ They don’t think ‘Miss Capital City’ or ‘Miss Black South Carolina,’” Cowart said. “I want to be a princess for them.”

But Cowart isn’t the only pageant queen reigning at USC. Numerous women, from first-years to law students, hold titles that will send them to the Miss South Carolina and Miss South Carolina USA pageants in the coming months, and current Miss South Carolina USA, Megan Pinckney, is a fourth-year retailing student.

Pinckney has taken the semester off to fulfill the duties that come with a statewide title and to prepare for the Miss USA competition, which will be held this June. The Charleston native frequently travels across South Carolina and the country for appearances, photo shoots and pageant training. This week alone has taken her from Columbia to New York to Miami, and she says she won’t have a free weekend for at least the next two months. When she’s not wearing her crown, she serves as a legislative aide for the South Carolina House of Representatives.

“There’s always something to do,” Pinckney said while waiting in the Columbia Metropolitan Airport to board a flight to New York. “You should see my planner. It’s crazy.”

Most of her work in South Carolina takes place in schools and with nonprofit organizations. She uses these appearances to promote her character-building program for children, “Karacter begins with K.”

While Pinckney sees her planner being filled until June’s Miss USA pageant, several USC students are preparing to take on a hectic schedule much like hers. Many young women at USC hold regional titles within the Miss South Carolina organization and are perfecting their walking, talking and talents for the July pageant.

For second-year tourism management student Emily Sapier, her participation in the statewide competition is a bit historic. After being crowned Miss Five Points Festival in early March, she learned she would be the first with that title to compete at Miss South Carolina.

Sapier has been competing in pageants since high school and said she’s only lost three times. She is also a professional model and holds down two jobs — one as a restaurant hostess and one at the Capital City Club, an exclusive members-only venue to which Gov. Nikki Haley belongs — so she believes she’s ready to take on the commitment that Miss South Carolina requires.

“I’ve taken 18 credit hours every semester, so it wouldn’t kill me to take 12 hours, which I need to maintain my scholarship, or 15 hours,” Sapier said. “Balancing isn’t that much of a problem for me.”

And Sapier’s planner shows it. She flipped it open to her monthly calendar to show weekends filled with double shifts at work, modeling jobs and pageant preparation. She said her commitment to work gives her the independence required of Miss South Carolina, who drives herself all over the state for appearances and other duties.

While independence is required of Miss South Carolina, third-year broadcast journalism student Amanda Bishop and second-year public relations student Leslie Knight have each other to lean on come time for the pageant. The reigning Miss Wade Hampton-Taylors and Miss York, respectively, are not only both members of Phi Mu sorority, but they are big and little sisters within the organization.

From the moment Knight stepped into the Phi Mu house, Bishop and other members knew the two would have a connection because of Bishop’s and Knight’s past pageant experiences.

“When Leslie came through recruitment, that was something people came and told me about,” Bishop said. “I didn’t get to talk to her during recruitment, but I was her Bid Day buddy and we spent the day together, and that’s when I knew we were meant to be big and little.”

Their paths to the Miss South Carolina pageant are remarkably similar; both began at a young age — around 4 or 5, both said — but stopped competing during high school to focus on other activities. Once in college, Bishop and Knight decided to pursue their lifelong dream of becoming Miss South Carolina. While many might think that would cause a rift in their relationship, they say it’s only brought them closer.

“It will be great to know that in that intense and stressful situation that I will have someone there that has my best interests at heart and I have her best interests at heart,” Knight said. “All we can do is influence our own performance. We can’t dictate how anyone else does.”

All contestants in the Miss South Carolina pageant must have a platform — a cause they advocate through their title — and while many choose wide-ranging issues like breast cancer awareness or hunger, Knight took her own past and turned it into a way to advocate for children facing the same issues now.

“My biological father has been in and out of jail since I was 4. He has struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, and that’s just one platform that hasn’t been talked about a lot,” Knight said. “When I was really little, I thought that I was the only kid that dealt with anything like that, and I was mortified at the idea of anyone at school or my friends finding out about my dad.”

Since winning her title, she has taken her platform, which she calls “Breaking Free,” and used it to go into York schools and educate children about these issues. She also regularly visits incarcerated parents to “inspire them to get better for their kids” and has served as a mentor for the children of incarcerated parents or parents with substance abuse problems.

“Jail is a scary place for a kid, and it’s not their fault they have to go there,” Knight said.

Second-year law student Donna Tillis’ platform is also personal. When she was growing up, her grandparents took in foster children, many of whom came from a background of abuse.

“We grew up like brothers and sisters, and I listened to their stories and understood their pain,” Tillis said.

The reigning Miss Walterboro combined her history and her knowledge of law to work with the South Carolina Guardian ad Litem program, which trains people to be child’s advocates in court.

“The offered training just nurtures a feeling that is innate in most people — that a child should be able to be a child and live a happy life rich with wonderful opportunities,” Tillis said. “I am a Guardian ad Litem because I know that not every child lives in a happy home and that, in fact, many children are abused and neglected on the daily basis.”

Tillis said being a law student while preparing for Miss South Carolina isn’t much different than preparing as an undergraduate. She does, however, bring a gallon-sized water bottle to her classes to keep properly hydrated for her fitness regimens. Most Miss South Carolina contestants train for hours each week, and Tillis is no different.

“My classmates often joke about my huge water bottle,” she said.

First-year pre-pharmacy student Hunter Wint also has a slightly strange pageant prep ritual: eating a can of tuna fish every night before bed. Her personal trainer has her on a strict diet, which includes the unusual bedtime snack.

Wint, who is Miss Hartsville 2013, is one of the less-experienced Miss South Carolina hopefuls.

“I actually decided to compete in Miss Hartsville on a whim,” she said. “It was my first pageant and it turned out to work in my favor.”

Since then, she’s had to make the big adjustment to pageant queen life.

“My poor Lilly (Pulitzer) planner!” she said.

While Wint and her competitors have until July to get in tip-top pageant shape, Cowart has only two more days until she competes for Miss Black South Carolina. She is confident, however, that she will do well.

“If everything goes my way, I’ll be walking away with the crown and a few awards,” she said.


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