by KENNETH FRY, Press Argus-Courier Editor Wednesday, February 20, 2008 11:07 AM CST
For 21-year-old Rachel Howells of Alma, representing Arkansas in the April 11 Miss USA Pageant in Las Vegas will be a life-changing event.
"If I win, I will be competing in the Miss Universe pageant and living in Trump Towers in New York City," Howells said Monday as she prepared for the NBC-televised event.
Should she not enjoy the success she has known in numerous pageants over the past six years?
"It would be hard to lose but I will know that food is on the way and I will be eating," Howell said. "I will stay an extra night in Las Vegas for the chocolate and ice cream at the Mesa Grill."
Howells began competing in scholarship pageants when she was 15 when she was crowned Pre-Teen Arkansas River in Alma. She went on to become Miss Teen Arkansas River, Miss Western Arkansas, Miss Arkansas River, Miss Arkansas River Valley and Miss White River and a 10 top finalist in the Miss Arkansas America Pageant.
"I love to compete," Howells said. "The thrill of winning gives me the drive to want to do better next time. The camaraderie is unbelievable. All my best friends compete in pageants which provide excellent opportunities to meet a lot of people."
The Miss USA pageantry will begin March 26 with grueling rehearsals, banquets and other public appearances leading up to the April 11 pageant for the 51 contestants.
"We have been told to prepare for some very long days," Howells said. "We are expected to be ready for just about anything."
Howells will leave Thursday for Kansas City, Kan., for a "boot camp" training session at Vanbros and Associates where Howells and contestants from Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and Nebraska will hone their interview and modeling skills, work out together and perfect hair and makeup skills.
The 5-foot, 10-inch beauty with green eyes and long brown hair will return to Alma on Sunday where she will continue to assemble the needed wardrobe for April before returning to Kansas City for another boot camp prior to the pageant.
"We went shopping this past weekend in Dallas and went nuts," Howells said. "We have been told we will have to change clothes three and four times a day from one type of clothes to another. I have so much stuff to take that most of it will have to be shipped. It certainly will not fit in two suitcases on an airplane."
The 2004 graduate of Alma High School is taking a semester off from her biology and pre-pharmacy studies. When the UA senior completes her final semester, it will be off to pharmacy school in Little Rock.
Competing in what could be her last pageant is a bit bittersweet for Howells, the daughter of Curtis and Dianna Howells and the granddaughter of Kay and Whit Whitlow and Johnnie Howells, all of Alma.
"I am glad it is ending on a high note," Howells said. "I am sad it is ending, but it is time. I hope to go out with a bang, but I am ready to go to pharmacy school and hope to continue to do some modeling."
When she won the Miss Arkansas USA title in Bentonville on Sept. 29, Howells received a modeling contract with an agency in Kansas City as part of the prize package. That will take her to New York City this summer to be introduced to a NYC modeling agency.
"Modeling is fun," Howells said, "and I like it. But, it is hard work. It is so hard it makes going to organic chemistry look easy."
Howells entered her first beauty pageant at the urging of Brenda Boy, the mother of Shannon Boy, a friend who was a former Miss Arkansas.
"I did not think I was pretty when I was 15," Howells said. "I am not sure many 15-year-olds do. I was taller than most girls and I had frizzy hair. I felt like I did not fit in. Brenda taught me to walk and how to go an interview. I entered my first pageant and the bug had bitten me."
Howells also played basketball in high school and believes there are parallels between basketball and pageants.
"Both thrive on competition," she said. "The competition is what is important in whatever endeavor you choose. It is the drive to do better that makes you a better person."
Howells believes she would have been just as driven by academics.
"But, I never would have had the chance to model," she said. "This has created so many opportunities for me."
Howells admits it might have been easier to forgo the pageants.
"The amount of dedication needed continues to grow," she said. "You have to work harder, you have to sacrifice time with friends and boyfriends, sugar and sweets. You sacrifice your body in the gym and would travel a lot."
While in Las Vegas, Howells will room with Miss Oklahoma, Lindsey Jo Harrington. Contestants will be judged in off-stage and on-stage interviews and evening gown and swimsuit competitions.
"I am comfortable with the interviews and on stage," Howells said. "But, I always get butterflies, especially on stage in front of a national television audience. That can be a bit nerve-wracking."
Ginny Wilson wrote on Aug 20, 2008 11:58 AM: