{"id":32905,"date":"2017-06-09T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmn.fhsu.edu\/?p=32905"},"modified":"2017-06-09T12:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T17:00:15","slug":"3-fhsu-students-competing-at-miss-kansas-pageant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=32905","title":{"rendered":"3 FHSU students competing at Miss Kansas Pageant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of University Relations<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien<\/span>
\nUniversity Relations and Marketing<\/span>
\nHAYS, Kan. — College students are sometimes quite creative, coming up with interesting activities to fill their summer months — whether for pleasure or work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three Fort Hays State University students are experiencing some of both this week at the 2017 Miss Kansas Pageant in Pratt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jetta Smith, Dakota Derstein and Katelyn Unruh will conclude their two-day preliminary competition today in an attempt to make the finalist list. The top 10 contestants from the preliminaries will compete for numerous scholarshipsSaturday<\/span><\/span> night in Dennis Lesh Sports Arena.<\/span><\/p>\n

While their sashes will represent a preliminary pageant which they won to advance to the Miss Kansas Pageant, Smith, Derstein and Unruh said they are honored for the opportunity to also represent Fort Hays State in competing for the ultimate prize — the Miss Kansas crown.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the third consecutive year that FHSU has had at least one student competing for Miss Kansas. Derstein participated two years ago, and last year, two Fort Hays State students participated.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s trio makes FHSU\u2019s list of participants second only to Kansas State University and Wichita State University, which each have four students in the pageant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is so awesome that we have three from Fort Hays State,\u201d Derstein said. \u201cI think that gives one of us a shot at getting in the finals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith, like Derstein, already has the experience of competing in a state scholarship pageant. Smith, now 21, was crowned Miss Black Oklahoma Teen as a 17-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this will be Unruh\u2019s first time competing at the state level after being crowned Miss Cowboy Capital in January. In fact, the Miss Kansas event will be just Unruh’s second pageant, period.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of really good competition in Dodge, so I was pleased to get one of the crowns,\u201d said Unruh, a 22-year-old elementary education major from Copeland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unruh is no stranger to participating in front of crowds, however; she cheered and danced at Montezuma-South Gray High School. She said she became interested in competing for a pageant title after watching other young women in the area participate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her platform is \u201cBeautiful YOU: Motivating & Encouraging Women to Be Who They Were Created to Be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019m passionate about, helping other people find what they\u2019re passionate about,\u201d she said. \u201cLife is meant to be exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Derstein, a 21-year-old wildlife biology and zoology major from Dodge City, hopes this trip to Miss Kansas is even more exciting than two years ago when she participated as a 19-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\n

Derstein, who also is a member of the Tiger Deb Dance Team at FHSU, did not participate in pageants last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite the process,\u201d she said, \u201cso I decided to take a year off to better myself and grow in maturity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though she did not make the finals two years ago, Derstein considered it a rewarding experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of personal growth out of it,\u201d she said. \u201cYou meet so many wonderful people, and I gained a lot of insight and perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As Miss Cottonwood, Derstein has chosen as her platform \u201cMADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers): No More Victims.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had family and friends who have been deceased or very harshly injured in drunk driving accidents,\u201d she said. \u201cI think about that every day. So I think teaching people my age and younger how to be responsible for your actions will benefit the state of Kansas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said the Miss pageant competition is a little different than the Teen level, but she still hopes her experience gained in Teen pageants will benefit her this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

After earning her state title in Oklahoma in 2013 as a high school student in Oklahoma City, Smith went on to claim third runner-up honors at Miss Black USA Talented Teen in Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n

She played basketball at Colby Community College for two years, then transferred to Fort Hays State on academic scholarships while pursuing degrees in journalism and political science.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith was crowned Miss Boot Hill in January to advance to the Miss Kansas Pageant .<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to come into it with a little bit of pageant knowledge,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to know how it all works, having a basic understanding of pageants in general.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s platform \u201cNo Means No\u201d is personal as she was physically assaulted by a parent at a basketball game the summer before her senior year in high school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got to college and started researching safety of schools,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more I researched, the more I realized how big of a problem it is for women to be sexually assaulted while they are in college \u2026 a very worthwhile subject.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More about the Miss Kansas Pageant and this year\u2019s contestants can be found online at misskansas.org<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of University Relations   By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien University Relations and Marketing HAYS, Kan. — College students are sometimes quite creative, coming up with interesting… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[6193,106,11101,11102,9467,11103,2777],"class_list":["post-32905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-dakota-derstein","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-jetta-smith","tag-katelyn-unruh","tag-miss-kansas","tag-pageants","tag-university-relations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}