If you stereotype beauty pageant contestants as shallow or ditsy, Shenita McConis will blow your mind. McConis is the reigning Miss Black Kentucky and hopes to take the Miss Black USA title later this month at the national competition in Las Vegas. But she’s also a project engineer and master planner for the Louisville district of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. And she spends much of her free time working with local and regional youth programs to encourage girls to dream big, no matter what their socioeconomic background may be.
McConis knows that some may have negative perceptions of pageants. To those people, McConis said: “Take a look at this organization because it is different. It’s more about building up each other and building up the community.”
The Miss Black USA Pageant and Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1986 with the goal of providing more educational and social opportunities for young women of color. One of the ways the Miss Black USA program has distinguished itself from other pageants is by substituting the swimsuit competition with a fitness segment. Contestants wear workout gear instead of bikinis. And McConis said women of all shapes and sizes are encouraged to be a part of the program.
“Part of what the Miss Black USA ascribes to is celebrating the total woman — mind, body and spirit. They focus on scholarship and community service and those are two of the most important things that I have focused on in my life,” McConis said. “Beauty is more than just your outer person. It’s more about who you are and who you represent.”
After successfully completing an application and interview process with the national board of the Miss Black USA program, McConis won the title of Miss Black Kentucky last August. Since then she’s been busy doing service work across the state. She spent a day in Elizabethtown talking to middle school girls about their career aspirations. She’s also met with the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana to encourage them to pursue higher education and to never lose sight of sisterhood.

velocityweekly.com