UWM nursing student Rosalie Smith will represent Wisconsin in the 2016 Miss America Competition airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
Smith will use her background as a member of the Panther Dance Team during the talent portion of the competition. She plans to continue working toward her nursing degree by taking online classes throughout her year as Miss Wisconsin.
“If you would have asked me six months ago what it entailed to be Miss America, I would’ve had no idea. Now, I know that it’s so much more than just beauty. It’s all about your integrity and the difference you want to make in your community,” Smith says.
The sophomore from Waukesha is focusing her platform on Colin’s Crusade: Breaking The Barriers of Addiction. It’s based on the sudden death of her brother Colin, who died in 2013 at age 26 after battling alcoholism. Smith plans to connect with families and friends of addicts, attend group meetings, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and work with churches and rehabilitation facilities.
“My platform is about spreading his story in order to speak to adults and children and provide them with a face, not just a statistic, of someone who was affected by an addiction to alcohol. I also believe the perception and stigma attached to addiction silences many families. If society correctly understood addiction and was more open to discussion, we could get help for these victims much sooner,” Smith says
