Miss Cambodia Utah 2014

Do you guys remember when I wrote about speaking at the Miss Cambodia Utah 2014 orientation meeting in November? Well, their competition day is finally here! I've been particularly excited because  this is the first time that the Cambodian community in Utah has held a cultural pageant. I've also never gotten the chance to attend their New Year's celebration so it's a double excitement!

I ran into a couple friends at the event! And not all of them are Cambodian! Just shows how supportive everyone is of each other's cultural celebrations.

The Cambodian community was so gracious to invite me to come speak at the pageant. I told them that although I'm not Cambodian, I decided to dress up in their cultural clothing to get in the spirit of Cambodian New Year's. They gave me a heartfelt applause after I said that. It was a really great crowd. I also learned how to say Happy New Year's in Khmer..."Sua S'dey Ch'nam Ch'my."

I wasn't the only one Vietnamese who got in the Cambodian spirit. My sister did too!

7 strong-willed contestants competed for the title of Miss Cambodia Utah this year. Their phases of competition included private interview, traditional costume, evening gown, and on-stage Q&A.

I was blown away by the fun energy of the entertainment and performances they had. They are such a fun group of people. They had performances from all different age groups - a little girls' fashion show to an all-male recreation of the YMCA dance. There's no way you would've fallen asleep at this show!

The results boiled down to Darlene Neth being named as 2nd runner-up, Michelle Tiem as 1st runner-up, and Kanika Eng as the first Miss Cambodia Utah 2014!

I am so thrilled for Kanika! Her and I first met when we were contestants for Miss UN USA in 2012. She won the Congeniality award that year and it was rightfully given because she is such a sweet person! I absolutely love her! In the beginning, she had doubts about competing but Agnes and I pushed her to enter the Miss Cambodia Utah...and look where she is now! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to work with her this year.

Shoutout to Chanda Chuon for all of his hard work in making the Cambodian New Year's and Miss Cambodia Utah event such a success! I know he's been stressed out trying to juggle a bazillion things at once but he handled it with grace. And a special acknowledgement to my pageant director, Agnes Higley to all of her guidance in helping the Cambodian community put on their first cultural pageant. She's dedicated a lot of time with them as well. Glad I could be there to witness the result of their hard work!

Miss Asia Utah 2014 Workshop

And just like that, we have kicked off our first workshop for the Miss Asia Utah, Miss Asia Teen Utah, and Mrs. Asia Utah 2014 pageant! Today's workshop educated our contestants about interview and walking on-stage. We had the pleasure of having Heather Richey, whose experience in pageantry includes directing the Jr. Miss (South of Salt Lake 2007-2008). Their winner, Lindsey Brinton, won the local, state, and national for America's Jr. Miss that year. She was also a judge for Mr. Caveman and Miss Draper pageants. She has been a mock interview judge and coach for Miss Herriman. As a competitor, she was 2nd and 4th runner-up in the Mrs. Utah United States pageant, winner of Mrs. Puerto Rico United States, Mrs. Northern States US Continental, Mrs. Utah Global America, Mrs. Global America 2007, Mrs. US Ambassador 2012, and Mrs. Premier World 2013.

Our second headlining guest was Jessica Whalen, who is my pageant coach. She is a former pageant contestant who has won thousands of dollars in scholarships while promoting her platform, "Fortify the Family: Educate and Legislate." She has won awards and held titles in systems including Pageant of America, Miss Utah USA, Princess America, and numerous local Miss America pageants. Her successes are recognized at the local, state, and national level. She now owns a pageant coaching business named Crowns 'N More and has trained many contestants to the crown.

Bummer that our time was short with her because she gave our contestants great tips to help them prepare for the stage. Thank you both for your guidance and advice to our contestants!

Presenting Thank You Plaque to Marines @ Fort Douglas

Duy Beck, the CEO of the Virtua Foundation and one of the judges for Miss United Nations USA, wanted to present a Thank You plaque to the Marines stationed at Fort Douglas for their donation and help with providing toys to the child recipients of the Virtua Foundation's missions.

He asked Graciela (Miss Imagen 2012) and I to join him at Fort Douglas since the Marines were doing their formations on the day Duy had planned to go up there.

Not do these troops dedicate their lives to serving our country, but they continue to give back to the community when they're here. Amazing! Military troops are the most humble, selfless, and strong people I know. Thank you for all that you do for us!

Miss Greater Salt Lake

I've always been intrigued by pageants that emphasize service, scholarship, and talent...rather than beauty. One of the pageant systems that have inspired me is the Miss America organization. I found out about this system about 6 months ago and realized that I would be aging out as a contestant since you cannot be older than 24. Unfortunately, I already held the title of Miss United Nations USA and the Miss America organization will not let a local titleholder bear two crowns at once. I decided to go for it anyways, with Agnes's permission since it was for the experience anyways. As a result, my goal was not to win - since I wouldn't be willing to give up my United Nations title. But to just place as a runner-up at highest so that I could still earn scholarship money and get the most of my experience.

On March 1, 2014 - I competed in the Miss Cache Valley pageant; a competition that includes private interview, swimsuit, talent, evening gown, and on-stage Q&A. I ended up placing as 2nd runner-up and winning a $650 scholarship! What a ride! The girls that I met are truly sweet and I can't wait to cheer on the new Miss Cache Valley, Karlie Major at the Miss Utah 2014 pageant in June!

I had also turned in my application for another upcoming local Miss America pageant, called Miss Greater Salt Lake. However, since two of my fellow contestants from Miss Cache Valley were competing in this one as well, I decided to withdraw. I had already achieved my goal of placing in a local Miss America pageant, so what was the point of doing another one and possibly taking away a spot from my fellow pageant sisters? I took the money that would've been used for my fundraising requirement and donated it as a sponsor to the Miss Greater Salt Lake organization instead.

The director, Natalie O'Fallon (Hollabaugh) invited me to come make an appearance as Miss United Nations USA. I was excited to see this pageant because this is the first year that it was held. Natalie was a former local Miss America pageant titleholder and contestant that aged out of the system. She continues to be part of the program by becoming the founder of the Miss Greater Salt Lake pageant. I'm so proud of her! And proud of what she was able to pull off in the short amount of time she had.

 

It was so nice to see my Cache Valley family again. This shows how supportive they are of all of their girls. We are so proud of Amber Huggins and Alora Clark who did so great in the pageant!

One of the contestants who competed and won the 2nd runner-up award is Thelina Smith! She was trained my pageant coach, Jessica Whalen, as well! We were so impressed to see how Thelina has improved. What's really eerie is that Thelina and I were both contestant #8, wore a yellow/gold colored evening gown, and placed as 2nd runner-up in the pageants that Jessica recently coached us for. How crazy is that?!

Ran into some of my fellow pageant titleholders. So great to see them again!

Taylor Smith was one of the contestants and she is doing such great things with her platform. I'm excited to help out with her next big project...the Miss Hartvigsen pageant!

Got a chance to watch Miss Utah, Ciera Pekarcik emcee the pageant and share the story about her journey to the crown. She has a story similar to mine...persistence pays off! She competed at Miss Utah four times before finally winning the title. She also won the Miss Congeniality award at Miss America. She's worked hard for the past couple of weeks to get a bill regarding child abuse passed in the house as well. Glad I got a chance to meet her.

With two former titleholders from Miss Legacy. I adore them both!

Congratulations to the new Miss Greater Salt Lake and to all of the contestants that competed. You guys did so great! Don't ever give us and keep trying!

Miss Asia Utah & Miss Asia Teen Utah 2014 Orientation

It's my honor to announce that I will be part of the director's committee for the Miss Asia Utah & Miss Asia Teen Utah 2014 pageants! We are bringing back the Teen division this year, which has been on a hiatus since 2011. I convinced Agnes and the committee to do this under the condition that my sister (Michelle Nguyen) and I will be focusing on directing the Teen competition so that the rest of them can focus on the Misses.

The Miss Asia Utah 2014 pageant will take place on June 14, 2014 in conjunction with the Utah Asian Festival at the South Towne Expo Center. The teen competition will take place later on in the year, probably sometime in August/September. However, we have decided to have both the Miss and Teen contestants attend rehearsals, workshops, meetings, and activities together to enhance their experience in our program.

We held our orientation meeting on March 15th with a fairly impressive turnout! There were several interested girls who were unable to make it but I have a good feeling about this year. Agnes asked me to speak about the program and go over the logistics of the pageant. I saw a lot of smirks and chuckles from the audience so hopefully I was able to provide a convincing argument for why they should be a contestant.

Our division consists of girls between the ages of 13 to 16 for Teens and 17 to 27 for the Misses. We have a lot of countries that could potentially be represented this year that were absent in the past...such as Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, Hmong, Cambodia, Persia, and Taiwan! I hope that these girls think closely about their decisions because it would be an honor to have them!

And of course...what would orientation be like without the group picture?

Could you tell we had to be there bright and early? I'm excited to get this year's program started! Can't wait to work with all of the girls!

Miss Africa Utah 2014 pageant

I attended the Miss Africa Utah last year as an audience member and never thought I'd be returning this year as a guest titleholder. Last year's program was at Utah Valley University in Provo, UT but this year's was at the University of Utah. I was stoked because it was such a shorter drive for me. Plus I'm familiar with the campus since I'm a currently student there.

Gloria Kajo, the pageant director, invited several titleholders around the state to attend the event. I was so excited to hang out with my fellow pageant sisters again.

I also brought along one of my good friends, Tasia to enjoy the festivities.

Miss Native American SUU had to leave us early since she had a long drive to Cedar City. Glad she could join us for the beginning though!

The pageant titleholders were invited to individually present a special award to the contestants or give out a raffle prize. One of the stage staff members gathered us up and led us backstage to get ready.

I saw Jawahir backstage, the reigning Miss Africa Utah...moments before she passed on her crown. I was getting all emotional because I love her so much. She was such a graceful titleholder and I absolutely love her inside and out. Fun fact - she was 2nd runner-up in the Miss United Nations USA 2013 pageant. She also won the most special awards on competition night: Miss Fan Favorite, Miss Congeniality, and Best in Talent! I feel like no one will ever compare to her but that's not the right way to look at. Let's just the new titleholder will have big shoes to fill.

Some fun pictures backstage :)

I presented the Miss Congeniality award to Mauritius. Congrats to all of the contestants. I know they all have their own unique talents and strengths, some of which cannot be showcased on a stage. They are all winners...just for having the guts to stand up there!

The results were...4th runner-up: D.R. Congo, 3rd runner-up: Ghana, 2nd runner-up: Ethiopia, 1st runner-up: Sierra Leone, and the new Miss Africa Utah 2014: Zimbabwe! Hope to see the new titleholder at Miss United Nations USA in November. Best wishes to the new royalty.