For Pitt student, playing in class led to posing with poise

Many girls dream of being Miss America. Pitt’s Jessica Megliss is working to make it a… Many girls dream of being Miss America. Pitt’s Jessica Megliss is working to make it a reality.

After winning the Miss Pittsburgh competition on Oct. 30 at Carlow College, Megliss is now working to win Miss Pennsylvania, and she hopes to go even further in the Miss America Pageant.

While many competing women gain experience participating in pageants as young girls, Megliss said the opportunity to compete came in an unexpected manner.

“It was actually a funny story,” Megliss said, explaining that in her life-guarding class at Norwin Senior High School, her friends persuaded her to wear a swim team cap, even though she wasn’t on the team.

Megliss said she was worried that she would get in trouble, and at the end of the day, the coach of swim team called her into her office.

“I just looked [at my friends] and was like, ‘Look what you did!'” Megliss said.

Megliss thought the coach was going to yell at her, but it turned out that she wanted to ask the future Miss Pittsburgh if she had ever competed in a pageant. When Megliss said she hadn’t, the coach helped her to get started.

The pageant areas of competition include talent, evening gown, interview and “lifestyle and fitness” — often referred to as swimsuit.

For those who consider the swimsuit competition an opportunity to see women in bathing suits, Megliss offers a different perspective.

“It is promoting a healthy lifestyle, because you obviously are making the right choices eating and working out, and that isn’t something you can do two weeks before the pageant.” Megliss said.

She added that it is an awkward situation, but one that will help her in the future.

“A lot of the time, it doesn’t come down to how you look in the bathing suit; it is how you deal with your composure and your confidence,” Megliss said. “As Miss Pennsylvania, you will be put into awkward situations, whether it is different appearances or relating to the public. It is to see how you deal with an awkward situation and to see if you have the confidence to believe in yourself and do it.”

A Golden Girl, resident assistant and the captain of the USA Twirl Team — which won the gold medal at Worlds-Marseilles, France — Megliss also works at the Big Brothers and Sisters Program with a little sister.

Megliss’s platform for the competition revolves around what she likes. She works to get people involved in the Big Brothers and Sisters mentoring program and tries to find students and volunteers from the community to participate and help children.

“It is absolutely amazing to see how much the [kids] improve in school,” Megliss said. “Overall, it helps a child so much, giving them that extra adult in their life, for someone to be there and be their friend.”

A junior in the School of Business, Megliss has a lot of ambition for the future, but she isn’t quite sure what she wants to do. She says the most ideal profession for her would be a professor, but it isn’t the only career possibility on her mind.

“This is different, but I have always wanted to work for the FBI, possibly in the Financial Fraud Department,” Megliss said. “I think it would be awesome to be a special agent, but that would be a little too risky.”