Bobbi Schneider-Harris, a senior communication major at UCCS, will represent Colorado and UCCS as Miss Central States in the upcoming International Junior Miss pageant in Florida over the Thanksgiving holiday.
While COVID-19 disrupted both national and international pageant competitions over the past year, Schneider-Harris is excited to represent Colorado. At the International Junior Miss pageant, she will compete for the international title alongside 35 additional representatives. “I hope I do my state proud,” Schneider-Harris said. “I know many people may undervalue the positive impact that pageantry can have on young women and society as a whole, but I find pageantry is filled with amazingly accomplished women who are working hard at their goals and constantly achieving great things while also making positive impacts in their community.”
Here, Schneider-Harris answers a few questions about her upcoming participation in the IJM pageant and how being a UCCS student has helped prepare her.
As there, unfortunately, was no state pageant held for IJM in Colorado for my awarded year, my title was appointed to me through an application process rather than through competing at a state pageant. As I stated previously, due to COVID, I was unable to compete at the 2020 internationals, so I was allowed to hold my title for an additional year in order to compete this year and represent Colorado.
There was not a state pageant this year either, unfortunately, again due to COVID. Although I will only have one Colorado sister queen at internationals, I can't wait to support her as she competes in her division. It may have taken an extra year, but I am so excited to be representing Colorado at Internationals this year. I feel very lucky to be able to hold this title and compete for the international title among 35 other wonderfully accomplished young women. I hope I do my state proud.
Initially, The Fearless Female was going to be a platform for me to talk about my anxiety and ways I work to cope with it as well as how pageantry has helped me to manage it. As time went on, however, I realized there was a different story I needed to tell through my platform. I learned that 98% of people never follow their dreams and that over half of the world's female population have wholly given up on following their dreams. I have so many dreams and aspirations I want to work towards in my future, but I quickly realized, I had no idea how. I started to wonder if this was the reason so many other people give up on their goals or decide not to pursue their passions; because they simply didn’t know how to begin. They weren’t given the knowledge or resources to successfully find a career path that lines up with their dreams.
I’m working to create a community of people who have found their place within their dream profession that will help to give the knowledge, resources, and connections needed for others to do the same.
I received my A.A. from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Beauty Industry Merchandise Marketing. I wanted to continue my education in order to better myself and get more of a background in communications-based fields and UCCS was the best fit for me to work towards my B.A. in Communications.
I have multiple aspirations and goals I hope to achieve in my future. After graduation, I am hoping to go into a Mass Communications Master’s program and hopefully attend TAPS (the Theatre Arts Preparatory School). Following that, I hope to simultaneously pursue a career as a professional dancer and work in the social media or events industry.
My communication degree has given me a vast amount of knowledge and experience in order to be successful in multiple career fields. I’ve been able to act as a professional event coordinator, social media manager and a team leader of various projects and assignments. This has helped guide me to better understand what I want to do in my future careers as well as given me the experience to be successful in my professional future.
Vote for me here! Part of the competition includes the People’s Choice Award. The winner of the People’s Choice Award goes directly to the final 12 to re-compete for the International Junior Miss title. I would love to be able to not only represent Colorado but also UCCS on the international stage with such a huge accomplishment as getting into the final 12. Voting closes on Nov. 21, and any support is greatly appreciated, even sharing the voting link with others.