Nicole Rash

Nicole Rash (born October 31, 1984) is an aspiring actress, singer, and clothing designer, the 2007 winner of Miss Indiana, and first runner-up to Miss America 2008, Kirsten Haglund. She has since passed on her title of Miss Indiana to the new 2008 representative, and has moved to California to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

Biography

Born to parents, Bill and Cindy Rash of LaPaz, Nicole Elizabeth Rash was delivered on October 31st, 1984 in Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. She then lived in LaPaz, IN and attended LaVille Elementary through the 3rd grade. While she was growing up, Nicole participated in a couple of children's pageants and modeling, showing up in some local advertisements starting at the age of 3 with her only sister, Brittany (March 31, 1982).

In 1994 Nicole's family moved to Plymouth, IN where Nicole attended Jefferson Elementary for two years. In her 4th grade year, she experienced her first overseas travel when she entered a direct exchange program through the school with an elementary school in Ecos, France. She and her family hosted a student for 3 weeks and Nicole went to France for 3 weeks where she learned to appreciate other cultures and languages. She then attended Lincoln Junior High School in Plymouth for the 6th-8th grades where she excelled in academics, choir, and athletics being on the volleyball, basketball, and track teams. Nicole continued doing well throughout high school being an Academic Honor Society member, among many other clubs, and continuing in sports; she helped lead the volleyball team to sectional championships, the track team to conference wins, and still holds the high jump record with a jump of 5'5" which she achieved her sophomore year. She also placed 9th at the state finals her senior year. Nicole graduated from Plymouth High School in May of 2003 with an academic honors diploma, being in the top 12% of her class, was awarded many scholarships including the presidential scholarship from Ball State University, and was even voted "Most Likely to be a Rockstar" by her class.

Upon graduation Nicole had unconventional plans for her immediate future. Rather than choosing to go to college right away, she chose to travel to South America as an exchange student through the AFS program. Having had several exchange students in her house, since her first experience in France (including exchange students from China, Japan, Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria some staying in their home for an entire year), Nicole decided she wanted to learn the Spanish language fluently and experience the South American culture. She chose Bolivia as her host country and lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia with a host family from September 2003 - August 2004. She attended a high school (Isabel Saavedra) in Santa Cruz for part of the time and even took some college courses while learning the Spanish language.

After she returned to the States in 2004 Nicole started attending Ball State University studying telecommunications, theatre, and dance performance. Then, because of her experiences in South America she tested out of several levels of Spanish, and was chosen to go on another exchange. This time, she traveled to Chile, South America where she lived in Santiago and attended UNIACC University while earning college credits for one semester. She continued to study theatre there, and helped teach English classes for 6 months from March 2005 – August 2006.

Because of the difference in the semesters, Nicole didn’t make it back in time to start the next fall semester at Ball State. So, she instead decided to pursue other opportunities including modeling. She started by sending in an audition tape to the CW network’s “America’s Next Top Model,” and was chosen as a semi-finalist. However, she did not advance any further in the competition and after sending pictures and resumes to many agencies across the country with no replies, she decided to focus on other things. She was then offered a job at the St. Joe Regional Medical Center in Plymouth as a Spanish interpreter because of her Spanish language abilities acquired while living in South America. Nicole worked at the hospital as needed for the year and also substitute taught for the Plymouth School Corporation on occasion.

It was during this time that Nicole entered the Miss America Organization for the first time and became interested in fashion design because of an experience in designing her evening gown for Miss Indiana 2006. So, in the fall of 2006, Nicole decided to change her major from Theatre and Dance Performance to Fashion Merchandising and Apparel Design. She stayed at Ball State for two semesters, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007, earning a 4.0 each semester with her new fashion major. It was during this time that she entered the Miss Ball State University Pageant and went on to the Miss Indiana pageant in June 2007 when she became the first Miss BSU to win the title of Miss Indiana.

Since then, she served as Miss Indiana for the entire year (June 2007-June 2008) performing numerous tasks as the state’s titleholder. She also filmed the reality show “Miss America: Reality Check” in September 2007, which produced 4 episodes that aired in the weeks before the Miss America pageant in January. She then represented the state of Indiana in the Miss America pageant in January, where she received 1st runner-up, and has since served the rest of her year as Miss Indiana traveling the state talking to various middle schools about the “Right Decisions, Right Now” program among other things. She then passed her title on to the 2008 representative on June 21st, but will remain the 1st runner-up to the current Miss America until January 2009.

Nicole’s future plans include moving to Orange County, California to pursue a job opportunity with a clothing company in L.A. which culminated from her appearance on Miss America (where she showcased her self-designed evening gown). She has also been accepted at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (www.fidm.com) and will be finishing her education in clothing design there starting in September.

Career

Because of Nicole's unconventional education plan, she has yet to complete at degree at any accredited educational institution, but has a promising career ahead of her. Having started studying telecommunications and theatre, it seems that Nicole originally planned to pursue a career in acting or broadcasting. However, she had always been interested in fashion, enjoyed sewing, and became interested in a career in fashion design while preparing for her first trip to the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant:

After winning her first preliminary pageant, Nicole started searching for the perfect evening gown for the Miss Indiana pageant. Having searched at many gown stores, with no luck in finding the idea she had of the dress she wanted, it was suggested to her to go to a couture dress boutique in Chicago. So, Nicole made the trip, with her sketches and ideas in hand, and had the team at 'Mira Couture' make her halter top, backless, iridescent turquoise, chiffon gown with rhinestone accents. Nicole did so well at the pageant that year, had such good reviews from many of the pageant goers, and had such a great experience with the designing of the gown that she decided a career in fashion would be perfect for her.

She has since taken classes in textiles, fashion illustration, garment construction, chemistry, economics, and merchandising math to further her understanding of the fashion industry. She has also designed her Miss America evening gown (iridescent purple chiffon, sweetheart halter top, Swarovski crystal beading on the halter and bodice), and was able to showcase it on national TV during the live pageant finale. Nicole will be finishing her education at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in L.A.

Job History:

Pageant career

Nicole started competing in pageants at the tender age of 5 yrs old when she was entered in some local pageants in the South Bend area. Having enjoyed the experience, but not planning on competing much in the future, Nicole focused on other activities during elementary and junior high school.

She then entered a small pageant in Mishawaka entitled "Miss Michiana" where she received 2nd runner-up, and later entered the "Miss Sweetheart" pageant where she won the beauty category entitling her to be represented for the year by the AAA Modeling Agency in Northern Indiana.

Her senior year of high school, Nicole competed in the Plymouth Junior Miss Pageant and was chosen as their representative for the state program that year. She bested a field of 9 girls competing in private interview, a fitness routine (for which she won a preliminary award), talent (for which she gave a vocal performance), evening gown, and on-stage question. She then went to Indiana's Junior Miss1 later that year, but was not awarded at any higher level in this program

Nicole also entered the Miss Blueberry Festival2 pageant that same year where she competed in private interview, evening gown, and sportswear. She received 1st runner-up in the pageant and has since not entered the pageant again.

After returning from Bolivia, South America Nicole signed up for the Miss Ball State University pageant her first semester, but was unable to compete when she was chosen for the UNIACC University exchange program in Santiage, Chile.

Upon her return from Chile, Nicole entered the Miss Indiana preliminary Miss North Central Indiana in Plainfield, IN and received 2nd runner-up. This entitled her to compete in the "Sweeps" pageant in Bluffton which chose two more contestants for the Miss Indiana pageant from runners-up during that year. There she won the title of Miss Wabash Valley and entered the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant for the first time in June of 2006. That year she received 1st runner-up to Miss Indiana 2006, Betsy Uschkrat, which qualified her for the National Sweetheart Pageant in Hoopeston, Illinois3. Nicole was chosen as a top 10 finalist at the Sweethaert Pageant that year, as the representative from Georgia, Kelly Bradshaw, won that year.

The following year, Nicole won the first local she competed in, Miss Ball State University and represented her school at the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant that summer. There she bested a field of 27 contestants and captured the title of Miss Indiana 2007. She was the first Miss Ball State to win the pageant in it's 49 year history, and the first person from Plymouth as well.

Nicole then went on to film a reality series with the Miss America Organization entitled "Miss America: Reality Check" where the 52 contestants were given tips by 3 advisors on changes they need to make for the newer, fresher, more modern image that Miss America needs to have. The series included 4 episodes that aired before the live pageant finale, and each week the top 3 contestants that were progressing the most, and the bottom 3 contestants that needed the most work, were chosen with a final top 3 chosen on the final episode. Nicole, along with Miss Washington and Miss New Mexico, were chosen as those top 3 contestants, and were awarded with a $10,000 scholarship from 'Crest White Strips' and a $2,500 shopping spree from 'www.shopintuition.com.'

Nicole then represented the state of Indiana the Miss America Pageant in January 2008 where she competed in 3 nights of preliminaries before the final Live Pageant Finale on Saturday, January 21st. There she was chosen as a Top 16 Finalist, competed in the swimsuit competition, moved on to the Top 10 Finalists, competed in evening gown (where she showcased her self-designed evening gown that she sketched, chose the fabric for, and had made at the boutique 'Mira Couture'4 in Chicago), then survived the Top 8 Finalists cut and competed in the talent competition with a vocal performance of "Bandido" by Ana Barbara, answered an on-stage question and was named 1st runner-up to Miss America 2008, Kirsten Haglund of Michigan.

External links

• http://www.missindianapageant.com/blog/
• http://www.thepilotnews.com/content/view/37025/
• http://www.hoopestonjaycees.com/pastsweethearts.htm
• http://tv.yahoo.com/miss-america-reality-check/show/42431</
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPPfjpn3DM4
• http://www.thepilotnews.com/content/view/38315/
• http://www.myspace.com/missindiana2007