Senior Jensen Hart is passionate about global health issues. That’s part of the reason why she’s involved in beauty pageants.
The recently crowned Miss Tennessee International 2010 says she makes it a point to identify herself as more than just a pretty face and believes that a lot more effort goes into pageants than just being beautiful.
“It is not cookie cutter or just one thing,” she said. “If you cannot put together a sentence properly, you are not going to win.”
What Hart said she enjoys most about the international competition is that she can show her true passion and knowledge for her platform: global health issues. As vice president of the Rescue and Aids for the Dominican Republic campus organization, Hart plans to expand awareness of global health issues and has partnered with Children of the Nations to build a medical laboratory in the rural Dominican Republic, which is a $52,000 project.
Hart will be competing this July in Chicago for the Miss International title. If she wins, it will help her organization tremendously by giving her access to network with people about global health issues, raise awareness and fundraise for her organization.
Hart’s involvement with beauty competitions is relatively new. When she was 17, Hart and her younger sister saw a flyer about a local beauty pageant and decided they should try it.
“We were really bad,” Hart said, “but it was always voluntary.”
By 2005, Hart won her first title as Georgia American Teen. The following year she was crowned Georgia Teen International, and for both competitions she placed in the top 10 at nationals.
Different pageants have different systems, and many are either platform or non-platform based. Miss Tennessee International was scored based on the following categories: evening gown, fun fashion, fitness and an interview, which was the most heavily weighted.
Juggling practicing and performing in pageants with college life hasn’t been easy, but Hart knows the purpose of competing makes it worth it.
“It can be tough, but it is just like balancing anything else,” she said. “If it is something you really care about than you will figure out a way to do it. The only way I have stayed sane is to realize what things are important to me and prioritize.”
And the rigor of her academic life proves that beauty contestants aren’t always what Hollywood makes them out to be.
Hart is majoring in molecular biology with a double minor in chemistry and child development, and she in the process of applying to medical school. She feels that her pageant days might be coming to an end, but she wants people to know that beauty contests are a lot more than what they appear to be.
“They are for powerful women,” Hart said.
