The Insider: Tulane student to compete in Miss America pageant
Watch Meagan Fuller in the Miss America Competition Sunday, Sept. 13, on ABC. (Photo from Meagan Fuller)
“I started doing pageants at 10, and I do it for no other reason beside my love for it,” says Fuller, whose master"s degree in public health will be conferred on Aug. 15.
When the 2016 Miss America contest takes place on Sunday, Sept. 13, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Fuller says she wouldn"t be surprised if her classmates did not recognize her.
“No one knows that I was preparing for a pageant, and I look very different on stage than I do going to class,” says Fuller.
To help with her preparation while at Tulane, which includes lots of time in the dance studio practicing for the talent competition and working with designers on her wardrobe, Fuller stayed active by teaching ballet classes at the New Orleans Dance Academy on Magazine Street.
Although her newly choreographed dance to Jennifer Hudson"s “Feeling Good” is nearly perfected for the talent segment, the pageant veteran says the thought of the Miss America stage still gives her butterflies a sensation that, if absent, would make her "something other than human."
If crowned Miss America, Fuller"s year of service will be dedicated to working as an advocate for America"s Promise Alliance, an organization devoted to creating conditions ideal for a child"s success in school.
As for her career beyond pageant life, the Attleboro, Massachusetts, native has been awarded a National Cancer Institute fellowship in Washington, D.C.
Her goal is to pursue a career that combines health education and communication.
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