Miss AU 2007

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me.’
                                                                                                Isaiah 6:8

For the people gathered in Reardon Auditorium on March 1, Isaiah’s desire to be an ambassador for God was displayed in the 11 young women who participated in the new Ms. AU Pageant, an event designed to support AU-East Africa (AUEA), the University’s partnership program with East Africa. Unlike typical beauty contests, this pageant focused on inner beauty and leadership. Dani Shaw, a senior social work major, was selected as this year’s Ms. AU and will become the student ambassador for AUEA. The founder of the Ms. AU pageant, sophomore Emily Wasonga of Nairobi, Kenya, describes Ms. AU’s responsibilities as two-fold: “she will be the voice for the ideas and projects” of AUEA and will also actively work for the Frepals Nursing Home Clinic in Kibera, Kenya.

The Ms. AU Pageant came out of Wasonga’s desire to bring people together. “Miss AU would help reshape how… people look at themselves and, at the same time, build on Umoja, which is Swahili for ‘unity.’ Unity in doing good... unity in changing the world, one problem at a time—because what we are doing here isn't new,” she said. Wasonga’s idea was originally a brainstorm for a new and creative way to do fundraising for AUEA that would “involve bringing people and their ideas together.” One day she heard a girl sharing that she had never realized her own beauty until recently, and Wasonga thought, “How many women out there sit and think what she thought?” Wasonga felt this pageant could help others struggling with their own beauty as well. With support from leaders in Student Life and International Student Services, Wasonga worked to unite people and Ms. AU came to life.

For Wasonga, the most important quality for Ms. AU is her character. “Miss AU has to be willing to learn and grow. She also has to be able to share who she is with the world…She has to understand herself as well as be willing to understand others,” Wasonga explained. Shaw demonstrated her own vision for change with her project to facilitate learning by bringing affordable and appropriate computers to the Third World. The pageant also gave her an opportunity to grow personally. “It’s taught how to be humble but also confident,” Shaw explained. She didn’t consider herself a “pageant girl” and was very nervous about performing. But in that humility, she found the confidence to be herself; she showed that she was the best person to serve as ambassador on the trip to Kenya this summer.

The Ms. AU pageant is a different kind of pageant because it strives to make a difference, both on the AU campus and abroad. It provides an opportunity for young women to find their own voices and discover their leadership abilities, and it does so by focusing on serving and building relationships with the people of East Africa. Ms. AU, after all, isn’t about Ms. AU. It’s about being an ambassador of good news for the poor and hurting, for the people in East Africa who face the reality of AIDS and poverty every day. Ms. AU herself said it best: “I think it’s all too easy to just throw money at Africa and let them fend for themselves. I really want students here to have relationships and a personal connection. I think that’s really what we’re supposed to do. It’s what it’s all about.”