UAlbany junior a Miss Universe contestant

[UA_MA_2000]

I missed this article a few weeks back. Apologies to all if this is a repost. While this news is not always the type of news we discuss herein, it's good news for UAlbany and/or its students nonetheless! Congrats to Ms. Nsiah!

 

 

UAlbany junior a Miss Universe contestant

 

By MARC PARRY, Staff writer

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First published: Thursday, May 22, 2008

 

Yvette Nsiah is a University at Albany student with a love of singing and a major in Africana studies.

 

The 5-foot-7-inch junior added a new title to her resume last month: Miss Universe Ghana.

 

That means Nsiah is looking forward to an unusual summer job. She'll travel to Vietnam to represent the West African nation in the Miss Universe Competition.

 

The July event -- "some of the world's most beautiful women," gushes the press release -- will be televised live on NBC. Donald Trump is the executive producer. Past winners of Trump's pageants recently got their own TV series, "Pageant Palace."

 

"I'm not very interested in reality television," Nsiah, 21, told Campus Notebook. "I'm a very private person. I'm down to try anything, at the same time."

 

Nsiah is new to the pageant world. She was born here but moved back to her parents' native Ghana around age 9. Her family owns hotels in Ghana.

 

Nsiah followed her brother's path to UAlbany. She won an "African Queen" pageant on campus last year, and it was through the person who made her dress for that competition that she learned of the Miss Ghana event.

 

She wore a tight-fitted, off-shoulder, low-backed African print dress and answered queries like, "Describe your perfect evening."

 

Nsiah described herself as an outgoing person with a big smile and a passion for "world issues." She has an education minor and is interested in becoming a counselor for children.

 

Asked if she was famous in Ghana, Nsiah laughed and then remembered how she had to get a professor's permission to miss class to compete in the African pageant last month.

 

"I came back to school the day after I won," she said.