21st Miss College Park Readies for Year of Community Service

Morgan Lash is no stranger to community service.

She’s been active with the Big Brothers Big Sisters and Athletes for Achievement organizations, and she sometimes volunteers as a Sunday school teacher at her church, but all have been near her home in Frederick.

After being crowned the 21st , Lash is now kicking off a year of service and appearances in Prince George’s County.

The 18-year-old freshman entered the pageant for the scholarship money, she admitted, but also for the opportunity to do community service, and spread the message of her platform—the importance of instilling a healthy body image for young girls.

“I love working with children,” she said.

It’s a good thing, because much of the work she’ll be doing involves interacting with kids. This coming weekend, for example, Lash will be riding in the Berwyn Heights Day Parade, along with the young girls of the Miss College Park Princess program. said that Lash will serve as a mentor for these young girls.

Lash competed against nine other contestants for the role. Many of them were University of Maryland students, so she made lots of friends, Lash said. But some of her contestants—especially the more experienced ones—were also the main source of pressure.

“There were a couple other girls who had been doing this pageant for a few years,” she said.

There wasn’t much need to stress, especially considering the public speaking skill she’s finessing as a broadcast journalism major. En route to her crown and $2,000 in scholarship money, Lash won an additional $100 by tying for first place in the interview portion of the competition.

The interview accounts for 40 percent of the score, and a solid performance in that segment can usually carry a competitor to the top five, Rodriguez said.

“The cream always rises to the top once the stage competition begins,” she said, adding that Lash was well put together during the rest of the competition—eveningwear, appearance wear and an onstage question.

But Rodriguez said that it wasn’t just Lash’s public speaking and presentation skills that took her to a win. The judges also saw her interest in service.

The panel consisted of individuals with little pageant experience, Rodriguez said, because Miss College Park will be interacting with regular people throughout the year.

“Ever since I’ve had this method to my madness, I’ve always gotten the perfect girl … the last four years I have gotten the perfect girl,” Rodriguez said.

The perfect Miss College Park is not necessarily in the competition to be a pageant girl, but to make a difference in and to be an ambassador for College Park, she said.

“It’s a lady who’s very humbled and not someone concerned with all those things that give pageantry a bad name,” Rodriguez added.

Lash is now obligated to attend a couple of appearances and service projects a month. This will be in addition to the time she commits as a UMd. cheerleader and writing for the student newspaper The Diamondback.

And come next year, she may be campaigning to get other girls involved in the pageant.

“It’s definitely something I would encourage other girls to participate in,” especially because every girl walks away with a scholarship, she said.

All of the contestants took home at least a $150 scholarship, totaling $5,000 in total scholarship money distributed, Rodriguez said. The fund supplied in large part by the College Park Community Service grant, College Park Unit 217, American Legion Auxiliary and the College Park Downtown Merchants Authority, Rodriguez said.

“If you’ve got all these folks from College Park donating to the scholarship, we definitely need and have gotten wonderful representatives that truly understand how important their role is in the city,” Rodriguez said.

list of contestants and their winnings.

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