UA Senior Competes for Miss America Crown
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Miss Arkansas
UA senior art major Savvy Shields is the current Miss Arkansas and will be going on to compete for Miss America in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 13.
Posted: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 8:00 am | Updated: 9:43 am, Wed Aug 17, 2016.
People from all over the state watched the Miss Arkansas competition with rapt attention July 9 as UA senior Savvy Shields smiled through her tears and hugged her competitors. She forgot to face the crowd and did a little dance with her boyfriend, all while balancing her brand new crown atop her head. For Shields, it was overwhelming, emotional and her first day at “the best job in the world,” she said.
A Fayetteville native and Fayetteville High School graduate, Shields’ pageant journey began in 2009 when she won Miss Arkansas Outstanding Teen.
“She’s the first girl in the history of the pageant to win Teen on her first try and to win Miss on her first try ever. She’s pretty awesome,” said Robyn Ledbetter, who served as Shields’ pageant director and is the student media director at the UofA.
Even though pageants were nothing new for Shields, the road to Miss Arkansas was far from easy, Ledbetter said.
“This is not something that you can just say one night, ‘I think I want to be Miss Arkansas,’” Ledbetter said. “It just doesn’t really work that way. It’s incredible to see the commitment that she’s had to get herself ready for it. Dancing every day, working out every day… She makes it look easy, but it’s not.”
Shields spent the past year practicing her jazz dance for the talent competition, working on her interview skills and getting in tip-top shape, she said. She has also been following a strictly regimented diet in order to prepare for the swimsuit competition, which is incredibly stressful, she said.
“You can eat healthy food and work out five times a day and have a rocking body, but you’re still going to feel strange,” Shields said. “Walking in a swimsuit in high heels is the most unprecedented situation you will ever be in in your entire life, so for 20 seconds you’re a Victoria’s Secret model. That’s all you have to think about, and then you’re done. You just have to get in that mindset.”
All her hard work paid off when she became Miss Arkansas 2016, but the hours after the crown was placed on her head were a whirlwind. Immediately after Shields was crowned, she was whisked off to a press conference. Shortly after, she quickly packed her clothes, took a 30-minute nap and flew to Washington D.C for Miss America orientation, though she doesn’t remember most of it because she “kind of blacked out,” Shields said.
Other state winners had weeks or even months to prepare for orientation, but Shields was rushed because Arkansas is the last state to be crowned, she said. The weeks since orientation have been just as crazy for Shields, who is now trying to juggle media appearances and prep for the Miss America competition in addition to maintaining her healthy lifestyle, she said.
“I have just been clinging to coffee like it’s my bible,” Shields said. “I’ve been living off a good four or five cups a day for weeks. I’m so emotionally unstable.”
Shields’ platform is “Eat Better, Live Better,” and she said she is excited to travel the state, visiting schools and media outlets to encourage people to live healthier lifestyles, she said.
“It was whenever I went to college and the Freshman 15 happened that I realized the health decisions I was making were leading to my lack of concentration, my fatigue, my mental and emotional stress,” Shields said. “It was then I had to decide to take charge of my health and realize that food does matter, and you are what you eat.”
The Miss America competition is Sept. 13, and Shields will spend the upcoming weeks in intense preparation. She will return to Arkansas after the pageant, unless she wins Miss America, which Shields said seems almost incomprehensible.
“Oh, it’s terrifying,” Shields said. “I feel very blessed. It’s very rare that people get to try for their childhood dreams. You think about it in dream world. It doesn’t feel like it’s reality or a possibility yet.”
Shields loves meeting new people and has a gift for making “you feel like you’re the most important person in the room,” Ledbetter said.
This love for people plays into her goal for Miss America, which is to make a positive impact on the girls she is competing with, Shields said.
“Miss America is an emotional rollercoaster,” Shields said. “My goal is to hopefully make it easier for some of the other girls and to love on them and to have them have a better week because of that. In these situations, your goal can’t be to win, because you don’t have any control over that. Your goal has to be to be the best version of yourself.”
If she does win, she is excited about the opportunities she will have to speak to and encourage others, especially those who are insecure about themselves like she was as a teenager, Shields said.
“I want to tell young girls and young boys and women and men that they’re worthy, just because they are,” Shields said. “Not because of their successes and failures, but because they’re alive and they’re worthy of being alive and living and taking up space.”
Shields will return to Fayetteville in fall 2017 for her senior year, when she will be creating a thesis project in order to graduate with honors in art. Following graduation, Shields will use her $36,000 scholarship winnings to pursue a master’s degree in art, she said.
Until then, Shields said she is excited to compete for the UofA and Arkansas on a national scale.
“Everyone is so sweet, and every single girl is just excited to be there, because you’re at Miss America,” Shields said. “You already have the best job in the world, being your state titleholder. Being Miss America is just icing on the already-iced cake.”
http://www.uatrav.com/the_companion/article_f1326ea8-63fb-11e6-8b06-9b8b9a9ec55d.html
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