Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Alpha Alpha Chapter, is a part of The Divine Nine organizations constantly active on the University of Cincinnati’s campus. They hold many social events, weekly study tables referred to as, Alphademics, and have contributed back to the Cincinnati area in numerous ways including, but not limited to, voluntary clean ups, providing lunch for the less fortunate and upholding a Flint water drive where they collected more than 1800 bottles of water. By the looks of it, I’d say they’re doing the damn thing!
But one particular event that is definitively creating conversation around campus is the Miss.Black & Gold pageant, The Gold Standard. This year’s will be remarkably memorable due to the fact that this is the first Miss B&G pageant that the Double A chapter has held since the year of 2010. This event has been a tradition dating back to the late 80’s for the Double A’s and with the return of the chapter just last spring, they now have been afforded the opportunity to dismiss further delay and continue on the tradition.
Now that you are aware of the pageant, you may be asking “Well what is Miss.Black & Gold?”
Miss Black & Gold is a pageant aimed towards exemplifying grace, beauty, intelligence and talent of some of the most outstanding better yet, influential, women student leaders here at UC. The girls will showcase these positive traits on different platforms held March 5, 2016. This year, they are lucky to have eight participants who have each, individually made a great impact on campus. Treasurer of Alpha Alpha chapter and Co chairman, Charles See, mentions “Miss.Black & Gold allows us to recognize these exceptional women and reward our winner with a scholarship, along with the title of Miss. Black and Gold 2016. The winner will also represent Double A through continuing their excellence on campus and striving to continuously improving the community.” Though there is only one titlist of Miss.B&G, there are still two runner ups, Miss.Gold and Miss.Black which are still recognized and rewarded of some sort.
This year, Her Campus UC is pleased to have a member running in the pageant. Autumn Francisco, Membership chair of the University of Cincinnati chapter. I had the pleasure of asking one of our very own, her personal insight of the pageant. “I felt like it was important to take advantage of the Miss Black and Gold opportunity because it gave me a chance to make my voice louder and share my story to those listening. Being able to share your life trials with others as a platform of motivation and empowerment is a wonderful feeling. With that being said, I definitely encourage other women around campus to participate the next time this pageant opportunity is available. It allows them to step outside of their comfort zones and show people the real them and what it is that they stand for.”
Below is the group photo of this years’ Alpha Phi Alpha Inc., Alpha Alpha Chapter, Miss.Black & Gold, The Gold Standard 2016 of The University of Cincinnati. As my peers would say, “It’s LIT!”.