Freshman Chris Smith and senior Beverly Bautista said they were looking forward to their new duties after they were crowned Mr. and Miss Unity, respectively, at the Black Student Association's 2007 Unity Scholarship Pageant Saturday afternoon at Pruis Hall.
"I'm just really excited to get this opportunity [being Miss Unity] because it's a really fulfilling and honorable experience to just get this," Bautista said. "I just really want to sit down with the committee and start planning for the future and what unity means to Ball State."
Melissa Campbell, Unity Pageant coordinator and vice president of BSA, said everyone involved had been working since October to make the event successful.
"It's been a very strenuous experience, but at the same time it helps you realize how much work it takes to get all of this done," Bautista said. "All the work Melissa has done for us is amazing. She has bent over backwards for us and we just can't thank her enough."
Campbell, a junior, said the Pageant is important because it brings student organizations to-
gether to work toward one goal.
The Unity Pageant is sponsored by BSA, the Latino Student Union, the Asian American Student Association and Spectrum, Unity Pageant Emcee and BSA President Brittny Smith said.
Each organization was encouraged to nominate one of its members for the pageant, Campbell said.
"We worked hard to get [contestants] of different backgrounds and different races this year so it's really a wide variety of people," she said.
Derick Virgil, Unity Pageant judge and Multicultural Center director, said the pageant gave students a chance to work together.
"I believe this [pageant] is a great opportunity for students to exercise their commitment to unity and in expressing the importance of working with people who are different than themselves," he said. "And it's a fun opportunity for students to showcase their talents as well."
Virgil said he judged contestants on attitude, talent, professionalism and articulate speech.
Bautista, who was sponsored by her family and AASA, said she already has ideas for her reign as Miss Unity 2007.
"I have a lot of events that I want to fulfill and one of them is creating a cultural variety show and inviting different universities to come and support us and have some sort of talent ranging from dance to theater to any sort of cultural [performance] that displays your background or your talents," she said.
Bautista performed a dance she choreographed and sang to over a re-recording. Senior Jamie Nicole Bauer, Bautista's roommate, said she came to the pageant to support her.
"I think she will [make a great Miss Unity] because [she will represent] stuff she's already been doing," Bauer said. "We were RAs together for two years and she always supported diversity and conversations with residents."
Brittny Smith said she believes Bautista will be able to make a difference based on her past experience working with Bautista in other organizations.
"I would have to say I'm very happy to see her crowned," she said. "Not only does she, to me, fit the Miss Unity title, but I think that with her being crowned she will do something for Ball State University, and not only Ball State and the Muncie community, but it might even go as far as the state of Indiana."
The Unity Pageant is Bautista's first pageant, and probably her last, she said, but she enjoyed it and bonded with the contestants.
"Basically all the people who were involved, we just all kept encouraging one another," Smith said. "There was a lot of encouragement from the whole group."
Mr. and Miss Unity 2006, sophomore Moses Jones and junior Amanda Ostoich, said they were sad and relieved to end their reigns, but had some advice for their successors.
"It's kinda heartbreaking," Jones said. "It's like 'well, you know, my time is up,' but the only thing I can say [to Chris Smith] is have fun with it. I had so much fun being Mr. Unity, I mean, it's no stress because it's everything you should be doing in the first place: just going to different multicultural activities. Space yourself from just your activities; go to everybody's stuff."
The Unity Pageant and the crowning of Miss Unity has been a Unity Week tradition for the past 20 years.
"I think the importance of crowning a Miss Unity during Unity Week shows an outstanding female on Ball State's campus that can go to different multicultural organizations, can bridge the different organizations into one," Brittny Smith said. "It shows that the university can have so much more programming once everybody works together as a whole."-á
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