This week’s campus celeb featured the new Miss Black and Gold, Miss Chamondrea Lane. A Junior Strategic Communications major, political science major from Atlanta, GA with her platform of mental health, emotional awareness, and self confidence in the African American community, Chamondrea has defiantly began to build her legacy here at Hampton University. A second year member of the Greer Dawson Leadership Program, a Spring 2016 initiate of the Gamma Theta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and a member of the South Eastern pre Alumni council. She is also the creator of the hashtag #TakeAStand, an initiative that distributes meals and warm clothes to those in need in the metro Atlanta area during the holidays. Her Campus was able to sit down with the inspiring young woman, and hear about her journey to the crown.
HC: Was this the first pageant you participated in?
CL: This is the first pageant I’ve ever done in my life. I never thought I would do a pageant, but I really had to push myself, try something new, and step out of my boundaries.
HC: What experience did you gain from the pageant?
CL: Basically each day of practice I was really nervous. I was constantly saying to myself “this isn’t you Drea, you don’t pageants.” Literary one night I broke down crying because in addition to doing the pageant I do so many other things on campus, and I just felt like it was so much on me. I asked myself do you really want to do this? Most of all I felt the experience was really different but a great experience to meet new people on campus which I’m always open to, I love people. The girls we were all so different but we all brought something great to the table.
HC: As the new Miss B&G what are some of the initiatives you plan to implement throughout the academic year?
CL: Basically just implementing my platform. Encouraging dialogue on the mental health, emotional awareness and self confidence in all of our black men. The root of my platform was that many guys especially in the black community don’t really like to talk about their feelings or they think they have to live within the stigma of having to be strong all the time. I feel like we as black women we are just naturally strong and we have all these things on campus devoted to the black woman, saying you guys need to be strong for them but who do they have to talk to about their feelings.
HC: What advice might you have for anyone who is interested in participating in a pageant but may be discouraged?
CL: Just do it. The only way I knew I could do it is by doing it. They day of the show something just came over me. I was just having fun, the other girls were nervous and I just came in just having fun like “it is what it is.” We were practicing and I was laughing and just joking around, like that’s just me I’m goofy naturally. I decided to just be myself. I felt like most of the time when we were practicing for the pageant I was stuck in the mindset you have to look like this, you have to talk like this, you have to be like this. The time when I actually decided to just be Drea I broke out of my shell and I think honestly that’s what really made me do so well because I wasn’t really thinking about what everyone else was doing I was just focusing on Drea and having fun.
HC: How did your family and friends help and encourage you throughout the process?
CL: Having my line sister being Miss Hampton. Nyia was really hard on me. Having basically my mom Miss Channing Scott, she was the first Miss black and gold when they came back on the yard she is also Miss Black North Carolina. She was basically calling me from North Carolina everyday on me. Precious she was in the Miss Hampton pageant; she is my line sister too as well. Just having so much support, people like Peter and Darryn I swear I have like the biggest support system here on Hampton’s campus. Even on break everyday I had someone new over helping me. I really think that’s what it was. Everyone’s two cents made the whole package.