Since winning the Miss Georgia Pageant in July Monica Pang hasn’t stopped. She hasn’t stopped practicing Chopin, the favorite composer of the classical pianist. She hasn’t stopped watching her diet and working out multiple times a week. She hasn’t stopped traveling from one side of Georgia to the other – sometimes on the same day. And she hasn’t stopped preparing – all day, every day – for the Miss America contest. A contest she wasn’t even sure would occur this year.

“When I won the Miss Georgia Pageant, we weren’t even sure there would be a Miss America,” said the 24-year-old Pang (pronounced Pong). “I’m excited that CMT (Country Music Television has picked it up because we’ll be hitting the demographic we’re looking for. Viacom owns CMT and MTV, among other networks, so we’ll get a lot of promotion. We still don’t know where the pageant will take place, but we’re told it will be sometime in late January.”

Pang (BSFCS ’04, Consumer Journalism) first began competing in pageants as a high school freshman, winning the title of Freshman Miss Sakamow at Riverside High School in Greer, SC. She also competed in other competitions as a high schooler.

“I made a career of being first runner-up,” she said, laughing. “I was first runner-up in the Miss Greenville Teen USA pageant and later the Miss South Carolina Teen pageant.”

Despite not always winning, Pang found the pageants fun and enjoyed learning more about how pageants work.

But after graduating from high school, Pang put pageant competitions aside and concentrated on her studies, majoring in genetics at the University of Georgia. As her senior year at UGA approached, Pang made two major decisions – to change her major and to enter the Miss UGA pageant.
“I felt like I never quite grasped genetics,” she said. “I was miserable with my courses, but I didn’t want to be a quitter.”

Instead, she began looking at other majors that are a part of the academic common market, an agreement among universities that allows out-of-state students to pay in-state tuition if their area of study isn’t offered in their home state. Pang discovered that like genetics, consumer journalism is a part of the academic common market.

I've never been happier,” Pang said of the switch, which prepared her to work in advertising in Atlanta until she had to resign to take on the duties of being Miss Georgia.

As for re-entering the pageant world, Pang said she realized that her opportunities for participating in pageants were fading as she entered her early 20s and she wanted to make at least one more try for a national pageant. She actually made three more.

“I learned early on that it’s rare to win a state pageant on your first try,” she said. “After I won Miss UGA, I competed in the Miss Georgia pageant and was a non-finalist talent winner.”

Rather than give up, Pang decided to try again and returned to the Miss Georgia contest in 2004 as Miss Conyers Cherry Blossom. She was first runner-up. This year, Pang competed in the Miss Georgia contest as Miss Lake Lanier.

Pang received a $15,000 scholarship for winning the Miss Georgia pageant and pageant organizers will cover her expenses for competing in the Miss America contest, but being Miss Georgia is a full-time job. Pang is paid for many of her appearance throughout the state, but she also makes free appearances on some occasions. The result is many miles spent in a car furnished by a supporter of the Miss Georgia contest.

“Bill Heard Chevrolet supplies Miss Georgia a new car every 5,500 miles,” Pang said. “I’m on my third one.”

In addition to making appearances around the state, Pang also trains in other ways for the Miss America pageant, particularly for the interview portions of the contest and discussing her platform, America’s Promise.

“America’s Promise grew out of the Presidents’ Summit in 1997,” she explained. “The goal is to make our youth a national priority by encouraging more caring adults to continue to provide children with a healthy start and safe activities, along with the tools to achieve their goals and opportunities to volunteer.”

This is the last opportunity for Pang to compete for the Miss America title. Pageant rules dictate that contestants can’t be older than 24. In fact, special allowances will have to be made for Pang and others who anticipated the Miss America pageant being in September as it has in the past. She turned 25 in November.

But Pang already has plans for her future after pageants. Despite her years of training as a classical pianist, she doesn’t think her future lies in that area, but it does involve music.

“I’d really like to become a music producer,” she said. “The Savannah College of Art and Design has a program that I would love to enter. I don’t know if I have the ‘ear’ necessary to produce classical music, but I’m confident that I could be successfully in other genres.”

But for the next few months, Pang will stay focused, practicing the piano, polishing her interviewing skills, and dreaming of being Miss America.