The News Record

Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Spotlight

Kirsten Haglund receives her crown and sash from the former Miss America, Lauren Nelson, in January 26 in Las Vegas.

In the fall of 2006, Kirsten Haglund beat out 700-plus auditioners to be one of only 20 students selected to the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music.

Less than two years later, the musical theatre major, in only her third pageant appearance, became a member of an even more exclusive organization, outlasting a 52-contestant field to win the Miss America 2008 crown.

At 19 years old, Haglund was the youngest representative at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on January 26.

Haglund became the second UC student to garner the Miss America title in the last eight years-graduate student Heather Renee French, '97, won the pageant in 2000.

In 1993, the then Miss Ohio Titilayo Adedokun, also a CCM student, was second runner-up.

"It was totally surreal," Haglund said. "I couldn't believe it. I've been watching Miss America since I was a little girl."

On June 16, 2007, Haglund, a Farmington Hills, Mich. native, became the youngest Miss Michigan ever at 18, joining her grandmother, Iora Hunt, who represented Michigan in the 1944 Miss America pageant.

Since the age of two, Haglund has been singing and dancing, according to her mother, Iora, who shares the same name as the pageant-winner's grandmother.

"When her father [Valdor] and I looked back at her childhood, now we see all the pieces coming together," she said.

Haglund, before being involved in theater at Western High School in Walled Lake, Mich., danced ballet six, sometimes seven times a week.

Her passion for dance and the arts paid off after winning Miss Oakland County while in high school. Haglund entered the local Michigan pageant to earn money for college, according to her mother.

UC's CCM was always number one on Haglund's list of potential places to advance her studies after falling in love with the campus' diversity and architecture, Haglund said.

After judges such as CCM professors Roger Grodsky and Diane Lala evaluated the young Broadway-hopeful on a dance routine, two sung songs and a monologue, they selected Haglund as one of only about 20 students accepted into the college.

Haglund performed in the freshman showcase, which exhibited singing, acting and dancing skills, and performed in the fall 2006 production of The Pajama Game.

Continued...

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