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5 More Beauty Queens Who Also Love Science

by Megan Arellano | 12:55 pm, June 27th

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The blogosphere let out a collective water-spit when the new Miss USA, Alyssa Campanella called herself… a science geek. This, this, is death of geek as we know it! Because girls only say they’re geeks to get attention, especially, especially if they’re pretty.

I knew Geek Culture had taken over, but I had no idea that it had gotten so bad.

Now Miss USA wants geek cred?

Maybe she doesn’t want geek cred, but she can-haz it if she wants, and she’s not the only one. Beautiful genuine geeks and serious science sirens not only exist, you can follow the jump for five more Miss USA contestants from the past two years, alone who’ve got some serious intellectual cred.

  1. Erza Haliti, Miss Idaho 2011: Currently in her second year at Boise State University, Erza has been interested in science since the sixth grade. Now, majoring in psychology, with a heaping side helping of biology, she hopes to attend medical school and pursue a career as a pediatrician. And is she a geek? Well, Erza says:

    I usually describe myself as a nerd, but to me they mean the same thing. I love to read and learn, so with just that I could be classified as a “geek,” but if you guys knew some of my weird quirks and hobbies, oh boy… the real inner nerd in me would shine!

  2. Chandra Burnham, Miss South Dakota 2011 : A graduate student studying Chiropractics at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota. She previously graduated with a degree in dietetics and nutrition from South Dakota State University
  3. Bethany Gerber, Miss Kansas 2010 : This 21-year-old senior is majoring in Industrial Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. More specifically, Bethany is working towards B.S. in Industrial Engineering and hoping to obtain experience working with broadcasting companies.
  4. Simone Feldman Miss Maryland 2010 : Simon recently graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a B.S. degree in Biology, not to mention her additional focus on Community and Public Health.
  5. Brittany Nicole Poteet, Miss Virginia 2011: “Nikki”, is a 23 year old student at Virginia Commonwealth University completing her Masters in Nuclear Engineering. Nikki will earn her Graduate Degree next month and looks forward to working in her chosen field as well as promoting the importance of science and mathematics to high school students. “I would like to combine my areas of education to begin researching natural forms of cancer treatment, such as dietary changes and the use of fruit seeds containing the enzyme Amygdalin.”

Even Cathy Lynn Grossman admits “There are more beautiful Darwin buffs than I first counted,” noting that there were actually five contestants in this year’s competition who were in favor of teaching evolution in schools (small victories, people, small victories). And just for reference, the brainy broads noted above didn’t even take that long to find. Granted, it would have been easier if Miss USA saw fit to write contestant bios with, *gasp*, words and not just a giant picture. (NBC and Trump, I’m looking glaring at you.)

So the next time the “she’s too pretty to be a geek” argument erupts, you should probably just let it lie. Nobody suggested that the Rock was co-opting geek culture for admitting that he loves D&D.

Megan Arellano also writes for Washington City Paper.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/pcrackenhead Peter Crackenberg

    Because I follow Starcraft II E-Sports, Anna Prousser (Miss Oregon 2011) was a logical one for this list, too, but didn’t get put on there. I know she does a lot of Starcraft stuff, and is a pretty avid video gamer.

  • Megan Arellano

    Prosser sounds pretty wicked! I’m sure there are other awesome geek/nerd contestants I didn’t get to– but to keep it short I tried to focus on women studying science. (Otherwise I would have had an even harder time picking just 5!)

  • Anonymous

    General Inquiry to the Public: Miss Idaho says “geek” and “nerd” are basically the same thing.  I always used those terms differently.  Are they now synonymous?

  • Anonymous

    It’s probably one of those regional things, like ‘soda’ and ‘pop’, or pronouncing ‘pen’ like ‘pin’. I’ve heard a lot of people come up with some distinction or other, but not always the same distinction – ‘geeks are socially inept, nerds are just people who are really smart’ ‘geeks are people who study the minutia of something, nerds are socially ostracised’ ‘nerds are just in to science and math, but you can be a geek about anything’ etc.

  • http://twitter.com/Steambrew Bruce Townley

    I didn’t even know VCU *had* an engineering department and I went there three years back in the 1970s. Of course I was a Painting and Printmaking student which may tend to explain things.

  • http://twitter.com/Steambrew Bruce Townley

    I remember when “geek” referred to a nasty kind of carnival act, like it did in NIGHTMARE ALLEY: http://bit.ly/ljAFqK

  • http://twitter.com/smoke_tetsu Smoke Tetsu

    This all well and good but it also kind of raises the bar for everyone else. Where nerdgeek use to mostly be derogatory. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    You could mention Erika Harold, who went to Harvard Law School and actually managed to win Miss America, and then annoyed everyone by turning out to be a Republican and arguing for abstinence education. ;)

    I’m pretty liberal and very much in favor of sex ed myself, but it’s funny how people who don’t fit our idea of a role model drop down the memory hole.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    I’ve heard it’s an East Coast-West Coast thing. Geek is good on the East Coast, nerd is good on the West Coast. Or have I got it backwards?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    I’ve heard it’s an East Coast-West Coast thing. Geek is good on the East Coast, nerd is good on the West Coast. Or have I got it backwards?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    Sorry to comment again, but this bears mentioning: the article’s really about how FEW of the beauty queens actually favored teaching evolution in public schools! Just Miss CA, Miss MA, and possibly Miss WA, VT, and NM. So only if your state contains Silicon Valley or MIT are you allowed to say this clearly?