Madison Eschan, a student at Mississippi State University, is competing for Miss Mississippi USA 2016 as Miss Starkville. The pageant will be held Oct. 29-31 in Tunica, Mississippi, at the Gold Strike Casino Resort.  Eschan will be one of about 35 girls competing for Miss Mississippi USA 2016. 
Miss Mississippi USA 2016 is the official preliminary pageant to the Miss USA 2016 pageant.
Eschan is a junior majoring in Human Science, with a concentration in fashion merchandising. and minors in marketing and business administration.  Eschan said she fell in love with MSU the moment she stepped foot on campus. She is involved with many of the school’s organizations, including the National Retail Federation Student Association, Zeta Tau Alpha and Fashion Board.
Eschan won her first beauty pageant at six months old.  Since then, she has participated and won multiple local beauty pageants in both elementary and high school.  
Her mother, Kimberly Williams, was a pageant girl herself and encouraged Eschan to participate in them. 
“My mother won five high school pageants so what she knew transferred over to me.  She encouraged me to be in pageants and I love getting dressed up,” Eschan said. 
 Miss Mississippi USA 2016 will be her first statewide pageant. 
“Preparing for this has given me a lot of self-confidence,” Eschan said.  “Being in pageants will help me in my future career as they have helped me to find myself and answer hard interview questions.”
 
Even though she has competed in pageants almost her entire life, Eschan’s grandmother Kay Smith, with whom she has lived with for many years said that pageants have not consumed her.  Smith said that she loves doing anything outside including swimming, snowboarding, kayaking, and cheerleading.  Smith said that Eschan has grown through pageants.
  “Every time she has been in a pageant, she has grown and learned,” Smith said. “Yes, she would like to win, but she knows that it is about being in it and enjoying her time and learning what she has done wrong to help her in the future pageants.”
Eschan has two pageant coaches, Angella Baker and Brittney Eskew. Baker has been Eschan’s interview coach for three months. 
“She is a very outgoing young lady, very intelligent, sincere, and beautiful.  I think she is going to do exceptionally well in the pageant,” Baker said.  
Baker has coached other pageant contestants and has judged and organized pageants.
Eschan said she decided to compete in Miss Mississippi USA 2016 because she desires to better education, raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer on a local, state and international level.  She longs to visit children’s hospitals, both national and international, to raise the spirits of the children and families there.  
Miss Mississippi USA is held annually.  In order to compete, one has to be a woman between the ages of 18-27.  The young women are required to do their own makeup and hair.  They will each compete in swimsuit competition, evening gown and interview.  The scores from each will be added up and the contestants with the highest composite scores, between 10-15 women, are the semifinalists.  The semifinalists will then go on and again compete in swimsuit and evening gown to further narrow down the competitors to five finalists.  The top five will then have an on-stage interview and will be asked questions about themselves and a question chosen at random.  The judges will then select the winner and order the other four in runner-up positions.  The winner will then go on to compete in Miss USA 2016 as Miss Mississippi.
Eschan encourages other young women to participate in pageants.
“You need no experience to compete in pageants, you just have to have poise and confidence.  If you have those two things and are committed, you can take the crown.” 
 If Eschan wins Miss Mississippi USA 2016, she will go on to compete in Miss USA as Miss Mississippi.