Last year’s Miss University contestants
OXFORD, Miss. – Fourteen University of Mississippi students will vie for the title of Miss University 2015 at the 66th annual pageant Wednesday evening (Oct. 22) at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts. The event is hosted by the Student Activities Association and the Ole Miss Student Union.
The winner will advance to the Miss Mississippi Scholarship Pageant in June 2015 in Vicksburg. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Miss University pageant are available at the UM Box Office in the Student Union for $10 with an Ole Miss student ID and $15 to the general public.
The pageant will be emceed by Anna Beth Higginbotham, reigning Miss University, and Jasmine Murray, Miss Mississippi 2014. Entertainment will feature students from Hinge Dance Company as well as both Murray and Higginbotham. Besides performing her talent from Miss America, Murray will speak about her reign as Miss Mississippi and her experience preparing for Miss America.
All contestants participate in a private interview with a panel of five judges the day of the pageant. The interview counts as 25 percent of their score. That evening, each contestant competes in the talent competition, worth 35 percent, and swimwear, worth 15 percent. Contestants will also take part in the evening wear competition, worth 20 percent, and an on-stage interview, worth 5 percent. Judges score each contestant on a scale of 1 to 10 in each phase of competition.
The contestants participating in this year’s pageant are: France Beard of Madison; Morgan Lindsey Burnett of Brandon; Carol Coker of Blue Springs; Taylor Cos of Hoover, Alabama; Katri Gilbert of Bellevue, Washington; Mary Randall Ivy of Oxford; Emmaline Johnson of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Taylor-Alice Mays of Arab, Alabama; Jade Mixon of Greenville; Grace Myers of Austin, Texas; Katherine Rollins of Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Ivey Swan of Hattiesburg; Dana Wesley of West Point; and Rachel Westmoreland of Kennesaw, Georgia.
For more information, contact Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union at 662-915-1044 or tbbaker@olemiss.edu.