Student Brings Wolfpack Pride to Pageant

NC State accounting graduate student Johna Edmonds has been Atlantic City, N.J., for the last week preparing for Sunday’s nationally televised finals of the Miss America pageant, competing in preliminary events and taking part in all the, well, pageantry of the country’s most famous scholarship pageant.

The preliminary events began on Tuesday with the talent and fitness and health contests, but Edmonds’ best shot at earning pre-pageant recognition will be today when the results of the Miss America Quality of Life Awards are announced in an afternoon press conference.

Edmonds, the third NC State student or graduate in the last seven years to represent the state in the Miss America event, is a finalist for the award that recognizes contestants who excel in their required commitment to community involvement with the Children’s Miracle Network and their own personal platform. Edmonds’ platform is “Readers to Leaders: Promoting Literacy in America’s Youth,” a program she started as a student at NC State.

A native of Lumberton, N.C., Edmonds owns a B.A. in accounting from NC State and is two credit hours away from completing her master’s degree, though that was put on hold when she won the Miss North Carolina pageant in June to fulfill her year-long commitments in representing the state.

Thursday’s Quality of Life winner will receive a $6,000 scholarship, with awards of $4,000 and $2,000 going to the runners-up.