SUU started off Homecoming Week on Monday Oct. 8 with the annual Miss SUU pageant.
“I believe that the purpose of (the pageant) is to find a woman who really represents SUU,” Payton Raddon, the Student Programming Board Event Director in charge of the pageant, said. “A woman who represents the institution and really brings spirit to the student body.”
The participants had to prepare a talent portion, a “Spirit Wear” section and a formal evening-wear segment with questions from the judges.
The student chosen as the 2018-2019 Miss SUU was India Mack, a SUU graduate student from New Orleans Louisiana, finishing up her assistantship with the Utah Shakespeare Festival while raising her two children.
“I truly don’t know how I feel,” said Mack. “I did this because of a conversation I had with someone about lack of representation–not only with race, but also as a graduate student, a Non-Traditional Student and a mother. You put in your head that you’re a Non-Trad and that you can’t do traditional things, but you can! Live your life!”
The Miss SUU Runner-Up was Cassidy Harmon, a senior studying strategic communication and sociology from Cottonwood Heights.
Mack and Harmon were chosen by the four judges: the current Mr. SUU Andrew Clements, a sophomore from North Salt Lake studying computer programming; the now former-Miss SUU Tiffany Chin, a senior biology major from South Jordan; SUU Assistant History Professor Dave Lunt; and SUU Assistant Criminal Justice Professor Jeanne Subjack.
The audience also had the opportunity to vote to decide the “People’s Choice” for Miss SUU, who this year was Ali Linde, a sophomore studying hospitality management, from Salem, Utah.
“I think (Miss SUU) should be a role model for everyone at SUU,” said Abby Cannon, a junior studying biology with a zoology emphasis from South Jordan, as well as one of the evening’s audience members. “She should be passionate about the school and making a difference.”
Students will have the chance to see the Miss SUU winners around campus during different Homecoming week events, specifically on Saturday, during the Homecoming parade. You can also read more about Miss SUU in the next addition of the University Journal magazine that comes out Oct. 29.
Information on the rest of SUU’s Homecoming events can be found here.
Story by: Treyson Lyon
news@suunews.net
Photos by: Easton Bowring
