Sharron Lewis brought her 10-year-old daughter to listen to Miss Illinois 2007 to hear about her platform and about the Miss America organization.

“I thought it would be a good idea for her to hear about Character Counts, and I thought it was a positive experience for her,” Lewis said.

Ashley Hatfield, Miss Illinois 2007, spoke to over 130 people in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Ballroom Wednesday night.

Illinois representative for Miss America discussed her platform and how professionalism is important in today’s society.

The event was sponsored by Samothrace Business and Professional Women organization and the Student Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

“While students may hear about these things in various classes or other professional settings, hearing it from someone they may be able to relate to on a few levels may help put some of these issues into perspective,” said Jill Bowers, one of the faculty advisers for Samothrace.

The University of Mississippi alum has used her education to help people all over the world. After attending University of Mississippi and receiving her bachelors and masters degree, Hatfield decided going into a pageant would benefit her financially and personally. With her master’s degree, she was left with student loans.

“I decided that if I went back and ran for Miss Illinois Pageant, I could wipe that out,” Hatfield said.

The night of her graduation, she prepared herself for Miss Illinois.

“Everyone in the world told me I couldn’t win because I was from southern Illinois and a girl from southern Illinois hadn’t won Miss Illinois and represented the state in 25 years, but good luck,” Hatfield said.

The more people told her that, the more she prepared herself.

With her professionalism and eagerness to win, she was crowned Miss Illinois on June 30 at the Norris Cultural Arts Center in St. Charles.

With her win, she became the spokesperson for the Governor’s Alliance for a Safe and Drug Free Illinois. This allowed her to go around her to talk to students in schools and talk about Miss Illinois Scholarship platform, Character Counts.

She said Character Counts allows student in grades K-12 to gain knowledge of the importance of grades, staying in school, getting ahead and bullies.

Hatfield said being Miss Illinois allows her to be apart of the leading scholarship organization in the world. It has offered over $45 million in scholarships to women in the United States.

“It is about empowering women and about helping women empower themselves and further their education,” Hatfield said.

What makes Hatfield unique as Miss Illinois is her community-based platform, breast cancer awareness. Since her grandmother passed away from the disease, she knew it would be her community service platform.

“Being an advocate for breast cancer opened a lot of doors after becoming Miss Illinois, because people wanted me to become advocate for cancer all over,” said Hatfield.

Hatfield was then asked to be apart of the board for the southern region of Illinois as a board member for the American Cancer Society.

All of these opportunities are opening more doors for her.

Without Miss Illinois, Hatfield believes she wouldn’t have had all experiences she had.

She is also an advocate for Children’s Miracle Network and being a speech-language pathologist helped her with more opportunities when meeting health care professionals. She has been offered jobs for being a speech language pathologist.

“Every single day, doors open for me,” said Hatfield. “Because I am from a small town in Illinois, there are not a lot of job opportunities for me as a speech language pathologist.”

Her experiences included meeting young people involved with gang activity in Mississippi. She saw that the adolescents had one thing in common: no proper education. Because of the things she saw, she gained passion for them.

“I want kids to do better in school and not to be focused on bullying and things that distract them from their education,” Hatfield said.

In addition to helping people, Hatfield has learned the importance of a first impression.

Hatfield said it is important to keep your own personal style, but stressed the importance of a professional appearance.

“I think about not only my dress, but I think about what type of audience I am speaking to and kind of generation I am speaking to,” Hatfield said.

Jessica Lange, a merchandising major, believes Hatfield’s advice about professionalism and appearance is important to her career.

“I thought is was interesting to hear about what Miss Illinois does and what she stands for,” Lange said. “With the way she presents herself and knowing how to address people, it seems she knows how to do it.”

Another quality she has learned from being Miss Illinois is speaking comfortably to people. She has been complimented on being honest and relaxed when speaking to people in interviews and in everyday life.

Being observant is very important to her and she strives to a good listener.

Mikki Meadows, co-advisor of the Student group for business and professional women, appreciated Hatfield’s hints about listening and the importance of first impression.

“I tried to touch on a variety of things,” Hatfield said. “I hope that a few things I said as far as professional issues and dress and commutation helped.”

“We are happy with the turn out,” Meadows said. “It exceeded our expectation.”

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].