11 women to participate in annual Black and Gold Pageant at Buskirk-Chumley

Eleven IU women are hoping to earn financial aid Saturday by excelling in public speaking and evening gown attire.\nParticipants of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha's 13th annual Miss Black and Gold Pageant will be competing for a $1,000 scholarship at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Saturday. They will be judged on an introduction (performed in business attire), a talent, a group performance, a pre-performance interview, their GPAs, their community service, the amount of advertisements they sold and their evening gown attire presentation. The top five finalists will also participate in a question-and-answer session, on which they will also be judged.\nThe winner of the pageant will receive the opportunity to move on to the state competition, and then to the regional and national competitions. The grand prize total has not yet been set for this year since it is based on ad sales, but last year the winner of the national pageant took home a $5,000 scholarship. Although this is the 13th year of the pageant for the IU chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, it is its 30th year nationally. \nThe pageant is named for Alpha Phi Alpha's colors.\n"One of our main objectives as a fraternity is to offer scholarships," said senior Cameron Beatty, the pageant coordinator. "The purpose of this event is to provide young college women with the opportunity to win a scholarship."\nThe participants began preparing for the event eight weeks ago, Beatty said, when more than 30 applications were submitted. Alpha Phi Alpha narrowed those down to the participants they felt could best compete. Since they were selected to participate, the women have been doing community service with the Alpha Phi Alpha members, selling advertisements to raise scholarship funds and developing public speaking skills.\n"Many of them told me they have gotten great experience from it," said sophomore Ellis Dumas, a brother who helps organize the pageant. "One girl told me she has learned to show up for everything on time, and another girl told me that she has learned how to work with others even if she doesn't want to."\nThe women have also been practicing the talents that they will perform, which include a monologue, African dancing, hip-hop dancing, piano, gospel singing and poetry. The participants will also put on a group performance, a dance tribute to Alpha Phi Alpha.\nSophomore Noma Diko, who is participating in this year's pageant, said the pageant serves to empower young women.\n"I think people should be interested because these are all different girls from different backgrounds," Diko said. "They all have the same goals in mind. What we see in the media is not what everyday life is like. Now, young girls are focusing on the fact that they want to better themselves and they want to be educated and become leaders of their community"