Her Campus Co-President Amber Rambharose and Senior Editor Claire McCown sat down with this year’s Miss Hollins Pageant winner Rachel Uliano ’12 to talk about her big win, how she prepared for the evening and how she’s so not a pageant girl.
Amber Rambharose (AR): So why did you decide you were going to participate in the Miss Hollins Pageant?
Racheal Uliano (RU): I decided to become part of the Miss Hollins Pageant because I wanted to support all of our classes and because Yafen Liang [Class of 2012 President] threatened me. Just kidding! She didn’t, but she did highly encourage me to participate because it would be a great way to bond with our Hollins sisters and so I agreed.
AR: What was your favorite part of participating?
RU: I thoroughly enjoyed the talent portion because I got to get up on stage with my friends and be absolutely ridiculous and silly and even though I also fell, and tried to cover it up by jumping like a fool-
AR: No, you totally owned that!
RU: It was a blast because it wasn’t so serious, it wasn’t such a formal pageant that I could just have fun with it. And anyone who doesn’t have a specific talent like singing or playing an instrument have the ability to express themselves on stage. Like…lip syncing like I did.
AR: Totally! And we’re actually going to put a video of that up!
RU: Oh God…
Claire McCown (CM): What sort of things did you do to prepare for the pageant?
RU: Let’s see, realistically? Am I allowed to say I practiced the day of?
CM: Absolutely!
AR: Absolutely!
RU: Okay, honestly with the help of my friends I practiced the dance and made up the dance about two hours before the pageant. You know because we’re Hollins girls and we’re all amazing at multitasking and we’re also all very busy so its hard to find time to meet. And I didn’t do too much preparation for it. I had the dress [for formal wear] from when I was sixteen so I pulled that out and I was just hoping I would get a good question out of that fishbowl that I would be able to answer. So not too much preparation went into it but I was really excited for the entire week before.
CM: How would you encourage someone who is kind of on the fence about participating to give it a shot next year?
RU: I am not a pageant girl. My mom never put me in one single pageant when I was little and I don’t necessarily have a specific talent – I lip synced on stage! – so I would encourage everyone who is on the fence about it to participate because it so much fun. You get to be on stage and be yourself and it’s really about loving Hollins and showing your school spirit, and like I said, I’m not a pageant girl but if I can do it anybody can.
Check out Rachel’s performance of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on the HCHollins Youtube page (note: two of her fabulous back up dancers are also members of Her Campus Hollins)!