[1] In 2001, while attending college in Evanston she entered the Miss Illinois contest and won the non-finalist talent award.
[6] During her reign she made over 150 appearances as a keynote speaker or featured performer, travelling between 2,000 and 4,000 miles each month crisscrossing the state by car.
[7] Her platform issue "Challenging Americans to Address Poverty" was inspired by her work with National Student Partnerships (NSP), for which she served as co-director in 2001.
[10] She started taking acting classes at age six and in subsequent years performed in a number of minor roles that were noted in local newspapers.
[1] After graduating from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1998, she studied Musical Theater at Northwestern University.