What's next?
ISSUE: 05/01/07 > FEATURES > What's Next
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| Miss USA 2007 and former Belmont student Rachel Smith is welcomed back onto campus by students and faculty. Upon her arrival, Dr. Bob Disher proclaimed April 19 Rachel Smith Day. |
When December grad Rachel Smith was last seen on campus, she was wearing the same black cap and gown as a few hundred other about-to-be alumni. When she returned in late April, she wore a designer suit created just for her and a crown with a value of a year’s tuition.
Smith, who won the Miss USA 2007 title over 50 competitors March 23, experienced the campus welcome in the Curb Café, which she entered via a red carpet on the day President Bob Fisher proclaimed “Rachel Smith Day.”
“[It’s] emotional,” Smith said in an interview with Harry Chapman, Belmont’s director of development. “It’s so good to be back. Belmont is my family and my biggest fans and supporters.”
The “product of NBC and Donald Trump,” as she calls herself, voiced her plan for the year as Miss USA in line with the advice she has received so far:
“I have been given a lot this year,” Smith said. “What won me the crown was my humility and gratitude. I just can’t lose sight of being humble and grateful for the opportunity I have been given.”
That opportunity became official as Smith, a Clarksville, Tenn., native and the daughter of Rodney and Beverly Smith, represented Tennessee in the Miss USA pageant on NBC with a worldwide audience watching as she was in the top 15, the top 10, the top 5. Then there was one. Tara Conner, Miss USA ’06, placed the tiara on Smith’s head and her yearlong journey as pageantry royalty suddenly began.
“It was like one minute I was shopping at TJ Maxx and the next, I had designers make clothes for me…and people ask me who I’m wearing,” Smith said. “I don’t think [the novelty] will ever wear off.”
Smith’s journey to this crown began some way back, when she was a toddler. Her father and grandmother entered her for a mall pageant.
“They had me in some thick white stocking, some patent leather shoes, in some hideous little dress with my hair in pigtails,” Smith said. “And somehow, even though I looked like a mess, I pulled off a win.”
She went on to compete in the Miss Tennessee Teen USA and won in 2001. From there she competed for the Miss Teen USA crown, won Miss Photogenic and got into the top 10, but did not win the crown.
“After that I was like, ‘I’m never going to do another pageant again,’” Smith said. “It’s hard. There’s only one winner that comes out… and 51 girls have prepared their absolute hardest to be that one girl.”
Smith’s mother agreed with her daughter that pageants are unpredictable: “In pageants you never know what the judges will like,” Beverly Smith said.
After her disappointment in the Miss Teen USA pageant, Smith focused on her schoolwork and got a full ride scholarship to Belmont University in ‘03. This scholarship exempted Smith from the college debts many people encounter after graduating.
“I was lucky enough not to have that burden,” Smith said. “It was a blessing in and of itself to me.”
Smith spent three-and-a-half years in college and graduated with a degree in journalism, although she did not land on that major immediately. She moved from pre-med to music business and finally to journalism.
| Tuning in |
| Rachel Smith, Miss USA 2007 and a December '06 journalism grad from Belmont, will compete for the title of Miss Universe later this month. The event will be televiseed live from Mexico City at 8 p.m., Monday, May 28, on NBC. |
“It took a lot of soul searching before I set my heart on journalism,” Smith said.
And being a journalism graduate has helped her in handling the press.
“I know what they’re thinking,” Smith said. “I can play their game.”
Smith’s primary passion is education.
“I have such respect for educators and education in general because you can’t get anywhere without a great education,” Smith said.
But the 21-year-old beauty queen realizes that as much as she may love education, her calling is not to be a teacher in a classroom.
“I don’t think I have the patience to be a teacher,” Smith said.
But in journalism she found a way to combine her interests and her passions.
“I have always been fascinated with television, film and the entertainment industry,” Smith said. “And when I combined [that with education], I got journalism.”
Last fall, Smith became the managing editor for The Belmont Vision.
“She’s so pleasant to be around,” Jacklyn Johnston, Vision editor for fall ’06, said. “[She] always had great ideas for the paper.”
Smith graduated in December at the end of the fall semester. She got to educate her campus and work with other students who were interested in the same thing as she was: informing people. Smith recalled her experience as managing editor for a semester.
“It was an absolute pleasure…I feel very honored to say that I worked as the managing editor for The Belmont Vision,” Smith said. “I have so much respect for the [faculty] advisers for the Vision, Angela Smith and Linda Quigley. They constantly pushed me to be my best.”
Smith encountered this form of motivation when she interned at Harpo Productions, a TV production company owned by Oprah Winfrey, from January to August 2006.
“It was an amazing experience that will allow me to be an even better Miss USA,” Smith said. “I was surrounded by people who pushed me to be on their level every day.”
Smith said the Harpo internship helped sharpen her critical thinking skills as well as helping her realize the importance of work ethic and responsibilities.
From that internship, she got the opportunity to go to South Africa to volunteer for a month at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
“I did whatever they wanted me to,” Smith said. “If they wanted me to wash the floors, I would have washed the floors.”
At the end of last summer, Smith began thinking about competing in her state for the Miss Tennessee USA crown. On Oct. 7, 2006, Smith won that competition, making her the second Miss Tennessee to go on to win the crown as Miss USA. The only other person to achieve this was Lynnette Cole in 2000. Then she was Los Angeles-bound.
“My dad was ecstatic. He was possibly more excited than I was [at my] leaving for Miss USA,” Smith said.
For this pageant, her parents and grandmother just sat back and “enjoyed the ride,” literally. Smith took her family with her when she traveled and got to spend some time with them.
“She needed me when she was younger and didn’t need me as much when she got older. She’s pretty self-sufficient,” Beverly Smith said. “We are her support system.”
The only child did need her family, but perhaps not in the way she did when she was competing for pageants when she was younger.
“[My family members] are my biggest fans,” Smith said.
Her family, along with 35 of her friends from Clarksville, Tenn., sat in the audience to offer support.
Smith remembers seeing them from the stage after she had just won the competition:
“I remember seeing them [from] the stage after I had won and I was pretty composed for the most part after my victory, but when I came offstage, we all had a moment,” Smith said. “Dad was crying, Mom was crying, Nana (grandmother) was crying.”
Preparing for the pageant was tough but enjoyable at the same time.
“It was very competitive, but it was fun,” Smith said. “I don’t want people to think that it wasn’t because I had a ball.”
Smith recognizes that all that she has are blessings, but she did not just sit back and wait for them to come to her.
“I always want to be the best and be my personal best,” Smith said. “I am willing to work hard to get these blessings. They haven’t just been given to me, that’s for sure.”
When Smith graduated from Belmont, she took along with her life lessons learned that she has found to be useful in her new position: time management, networking and respect.
“[I learned] to treat everyone with respect and to treat [myself] with respect. You never know who it is that you will run into…in the future,” Smith said.
And when she became Miss USA, she had to learn to let go of some things:
“My schedule is completely out of my hands,” Smith said. “I’m a very independent, self-sufficient person, so it is a challenge for me.”
The scene of pageantry has witnessed a number of scandals of late; Smith’s predecessor, Tara Conner, nearly lost her title during her Miss USA reign. As Smith succeeds Conner, her family, friends and herself are confident that she will honor the title.
“I have raised her to have good morals and integrity,” her mother said. “She is a leader, not a follower. I am exceptionally, extremely proud of her.”
Johnston also had no worries about her friend and former colleague.
“She’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Johnston said. “And it’s perfect timing for someone like her to come in. What she will do for good [in the position] will overshadow the bad from [its] past.”
As Miss USA, Smith will be a spokesperson for ovarian and breast cancer research and awareness. She will be working in association with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, and Gilda’s Club, among other cancer organizations.
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