Ten beautiful young ladies line up on the stage, waiting in expectation. One will carry the title for the following year. No. 9, Jessica Sparks, excitedly holds her face in her hands as the announcer introduces her as the new Miss MSU.
Hannah Baskin was named first runner up in the pageant and Sara Peters was named second runner up.
Sparks, a senior in biochemistry and molecular biology, is from Belmont, Miss. She has two younger siblings, Julie and John, and parents Dicky and Joan, who all came to support her at the Miss MSU Scholarship pageant held Thursday night.
“My family and I are so close. I have been so tremendously blessed to have so many loving people support me,” Sparks said. “I never thought I’d win.”
Even after the pageant had long been over, she said she could not fathom its entirety. Her next step will take her to compete at the Miss Mississippi Pageant in Vicksburg, and possibly to the Miss America Pageant if selected to represent Mississippi.
Sparks is highly active within the university. She serves as a Roadrunner, the director of health and wellness with the Student Association and the president of the pre-med honor society, Alpha Epsilon Delta. She participates in the honors program and plays piano in an ensemble for the Wesley Foundation.
“I did pageants in high school and actually got to represent the state of Mississippi in the America’s National Teenager Pageant. That experience helped me grow as a person so much that I decided to pursue the Miss America system,” Sparks said.
The pageant consisted of four competitions: swimsuit worth 10 percent; talent, worth 30 percent; poise/elegance, worth 10 percent, and a private interview worth 40 percent. The last 10 percent is a composite score. The contestants performed everything from a rendition of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” to a tap routine to “Jail House Rock.”
Inspired by her mother, who also plays piano, Sparks has played the piano for 12 years. For the pageant, she performed a spiced-up version of Liberace’s “Chopsticks.”
Sparks said she believes that the greatest influence in her life has been her belief in Jesus Christ.
“I gave my life to him when I was seven years old, and I haven’t looked back ever since because I truly believe that he holds everything in the palm of his hands, and that influences my life,” Sparks said. “I want people to see Jesus in me and that inner peace that makes everything in life worth living. Every good thing comes from him. I’m so thankful for this opportunity.”
An aspiring doctor, Sparks has already been accepted into medical school. Although it is not definite, Sparks said she hopes to attend the University of Tennessee because it would provide her “phenomenal opportunities to practice in the community firsthand as a medical student.”
“The girls are the best part of the pageant–inwardly beautiful and outwardly georgeous,” Sparks said. “And contrary to popular belief, we are actually very supportive of each other.”
Each contestant has a platform, or a cause for which she stands. Spark’s platform targets cardiovascular disease and is the acronym HEART: H–healthy diet, E–exercise, A-anger and stress management, R–risk assessment and T–tobacco elimination. Her reasons for selecting this platform are quite personal.
“My grandfather had a heart attack last Christmas Eve. He’s doing fine now, but it was a terrible experience for my family, and I realized that I might be at risk, and people I care about might be at risk,” Sparks said.
She explained that the only cause of heart disease that cannot be controlled is genetics.
However, changing a lifestyle can drastically reduce an individual’s chances of developing heart disease, which includes conditions such as congestive heart failure, stroke and heart attack.
“Half of Americans can expect to die of cardiovascular disease,” Sparks said. “Prevention for one is prevention for others–cancer, diabetes and other deadly diseases.”
According to the American Heart Association, Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States. Since February is Heart Month, Sparks was excited that she was crowned in a month that was significant to her platform.
The Miss MSU Scholarship Pageant is one of the preliminaries to the Miss America Pageant, which awards more scholarships to women than any other organization in the world.
Coordinator of Student Organizations, Rosanne Hilbun, worked with the Campus Activities Board, the Student Association, the Panhellenic Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, along with several other key individuals in order to put together the Miss MSU Pageant.
“Any full-time student at Mississippi State in good academic and disciplinary standing is eligible to compete for the title of Miss MSU,” Hilbun said (DOUBLE CHECK THIS ATTRIBUTION–ATP).
The university’s students benefit greatly from this competition.
“Since 1993, the Miss Mississippi corporation has awarded more than $1 million in scholarships to women in Mississippi; since 1994, Miss Mississippi has awarded Mississippi State students $168,000 in scholarships,” Hilbun said.
“I think that Jessica (Sparks) is the epitome of what we think of as leadership at Mississippi State. I have been amazed at her dedication and attitude, which has been absolutely wonderful. She’s a very well-rounded contestant,” Hilbun said.
Sparks will represent MSU at the Miss Mississippi Pageant. She will also serve as an ‘ambassador’ for the university at formal functions for the following year. If she is selected as Miss Mississippi, then the first alternate, Hannah Baskin, will take Spark’s position as Miss MSU.