Name: Lindsey Shapiro
Age: 20
Year: Junior
Major: Cellular Molecular Biology and Certified Chemistry
Hometown: Davidson, NC
Q: So what exactly is your title?
A:Miss North Carolina (ANTSO -America National Teenage Scholarship Organization – National Miss)
Q: What made you want to compete?
A:I needed scholarship money for school and this was the first one I’d ever done. I really just needed money for school and I wanted to do something different. I was sick of working at Lowes Hardware, so I figured it gave me something to do to work for this summer!
Q: Did you get a lot of scholarship money?
A:I did and I’m waiting to hear back from nationals cause we had them the 2nd of July in South Beach.
Q: So is it considered a pageant?
A:Yeah it’s considered a pageant. It’s similar to the Miss America, Miss USA pageants, it’s just a different division.
Q: Did you always want to do pageants or was it just a spur of the moment type thing?
A:I literally signed up, for the North Carolina one, a week before it actually happened. It was very last minute, mainly because I didn’t have anything else to do. I’m going to be starting the Miss America system in December! You have to win a local title and then go on to get the Miss North Carolina, America one.
So it’s local, state, and the Miss America competition. I just wanted to try a different system.
Q: Did you have to go in front of a bunch of judges?
A:Yeah it’s like what you see on TV. You have bathing suit and evening gown. Talent was optional so that’s one thing the Miss America system does that you don’t have to do.
Q: Well I was going to ask you, if you had to do a talent what would it be?
A:Well, I play Viola. I’ve played it for twelve years now. It’s like a violin. It’s in between a violin and a cello I guess. The hardest thing is you rarely see people play instruments and I never thought about it until someone told me your instrument can bump on something and it can go out of tune and then you end up playing it out of tune. It’s not like singing where you can be like “Oh haha, just kidding” or dancing where no one really knows if you mess up, I guess. A viola is like the heart and the soul of the orchestra. But yeah you have to go in front of judges and answer an onstage question and you have evening gown too.
Q: What did your evening gown look like?
A:Oh my gosh, it was beautiful. It was a floor length gown, pure white. It was spaghetti strap with a sweetheart neckline, like all crystals. I had to work like all summer to get it (laughs).
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Q: So were you surprised when you won or were you expecting it?
A:Oh, I was surprised. That was the first pageant I had ever done and people had told me I was the underdog and that I really wasn’t as much of a threat and there wasn’t as much of a competition. The girl who had originally said it to me didn’t make the top five, so I was just as surprised as anyone. And going to nationals is another world; that was insane. They had some of the judges from Dancing With The Stars. I felt bad that I really don’t watch it but my roommate does!
Q: How do you think your title will affect ASU’s campus, are you going to try to do anything to promote it?
A:Oh yeah, of course. I won the Miss North Carolina title back in the beginning of June, like June 4th, and since then, it’s already opened so many doors and so many opportunities. And going to ASU is the best decision I’ve ever made; I want to promote ASU so I think there’s a lot I want to do. I just became an official statewide spokesperson for Alzheimer’s disease and I do a lot for them, so that was a big thing for Appalachian.
Q: What do you want to do after you graduate?
A:I’d like to work in a research lab. I did a lot of research in the Davidson lab last summer, so probably something in the bio medical research field. And I’d like to get my Ph.D. in neuroscience.
Q: You’re in Sigma Kappa right? Do you like it?
A:Yeah, I’m a Sigma Kappa and I mean, I’m the most anti-sorority person you’ll ever meet. I’m the biggest tomboy; I wear jeans and sweatshirts everyday! But I love it, I’ve made some lifelong friends through it and I really do like the philanthropy stuff that we do. That was really the main reason why I joined anyway.
Q: Is their philanthropy Alzheimer’s disease?
A:Yeah, like gerontology research, so that was the main reason why I joined.
Q: Do you know someone that has Alzheimer’s, like in your family?
A:Actually not even in my family. A lot of my neighbors and a lot of my friends are affected by it and I work in the nursing home anyways, so through volunteer work you get to see it. So many people I know are either affected or their family members are affected. It’s just terrible to see it. And especially since I was able to be on the academic side from doing research in Davidson, I saw how close we are to a cure and it just blows my mind. I’m trying right now to get local congressmen and women of our state to try and get funding for academic research. We are so close and it’s something I really do believe in.
Q: What is your favorite thing about Appalachian?
A:The friendliness that you feel. You walk outside and everyone feels like a family. There’s nothing like it! I’ve never felt that on any other campus. It’s like, it’s so big but everyone’s so close. Everyone’s just so willing to go out of their way to help you. Granted you’re going to have the people that don’t want to, but the majority of the people just wave and smile – “hey how ya doin?” But everyone loves going to football games and that was one of the big selling points.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like me to know about yourself?
A:(Laughs) I have a one-eyed African Hedgehog that lives in my backyard. His name is Sonic. That’s always a random fact I tell people. We feed him cat food (laughs). Oh and at Nationals I got second runner up for the overall national title and won most photogenic. So I beat 52 States and territories. You had to turn in a portfolio when you went and I actually had a local student do all the photography, so that was great.
Find Lindsey Shapiro on facebook and on twitter.
(photo by Tara Babb)