MSU's Miss Montana USA hopes pageant is springboard to Governor's Mansion

12/05/2001 BOZEMAN -- With a poise and polish that belies her 19 years, Montana State University student Meredith McCannel says that she will someday be Montana's governor.

McCannel, a junior from Billings, has already shown that her determination makes things happen. Crowned Miss Montana USA in September, she achieved the feat after six months of intense preparation.

"I first tried for the crown last year, but I was so unprepared," recalls McCannel. "I thought it would be so simple. So this year I really wanted to win. That was quite a motivator so I started working out, and working with people who could help me with my interview, voice, walking."

McCannel, will take next semester off from her studies as a political science major and prepare for the televised Miss USA pageant in Gary, Ind., in March.

"Montana hasn't had anyone finish in the top 10 in the Miss USA pageant since the 1950s, but I hope to change that," she said. "This will be my one chance, because you can compete only once."

McCannel has an almost encyclopedic recall of pageant information.

"I'm a trivia nerd," she said. "Whenever I hear anyone talk about pageants I research the information on the Internet. I chose the Miss USA pageant because of the glamour and its partiality to tall women."

McCannel, at six feet tall, dismisses the view that beauty pageants trivialize women.

"What could be a better way to showcase your overall beauty and intelligence," she said. "In the Miss USA pageant, the interview segment is your first event. That's where the judges form their impression of you. The confidence gained from pageants is irreplaceable."

McCannel sees the pageant experiences as memory makers. "These are things I'll tell my grandchildren."

She'll be making memories for others as well. There will be a large contingent of McCannel's relatives traveling to Indiana for the Miss USA pageant.

"My mom is from Texas, the relatives there were so excited when I won Miss Montana USA," she said. "Beauty pageants are religion down there."

As Miss Montana USA McCannel sees herself as a role model and is active in the university community. She has a special interest in expanding counseling services for victims of sexual assault and rape and works with the MSU VOICE Center (Victim Options in the Campus Environment). She also is a member of the MSU Dance Company and the MSU Corale. Through the Corale she will be singing in this season's Madrigal dinners

Her goal of governorship is part of an orderly 20 year progression that McCannel has mapped out for herself that includes the Miss USA pageant, event management and political campaigns.

After the Miss USA Pageant she plans to complete an internship in Congressman Denny Rehberg's Montana office.

"I wanted to do a political science internship and I wanted to do one for someone I liked. Denny was very approachable," she said. "I started as a volunteer over the summer."

She plans to return to MSU and finish her degree and then go on to earn a degree in event management and event planning at Johnson Wales University where she received a full scholarship as the Miss Montana USA winner.

"I then see myself running campaigns in larger states for about 15 or 20 years and then I'll come back to Montana and run for office."

McCannel is a graduate of Billings West High School. She and her family came to Montana three years ago after living in Alexandria, Vir.

"My dad is from Billings and we had been out here on vacations but to live here, at first it was culture shock, it was so different," she said. "But now it seems like a paradise."

Send questions or comments to Brenda McDonald: bmcdonal@montana.edu. Or you can send letters to Brenda McDonald, MSU Communications Services, 416 Culbertson Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717.

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