|
Area Woman Crowned Miss New Jersey
By Keith Hagarty
 | | --Photo Courtesy of The Official Web site of Miss New Jersey Thanking all her friends and family who supported her every step of the way, 22 year old township resident and 2003 Howell High School graduate, Amy Polumbo, was recently crowned Miss New Jersey 2007. |
|
HOWELL - Amy Polumbo has come a long way since her carefree days as a little girl, running around on the playground of Taunton Elementary School, Howell.
Last week, the energetic theater-performance major at Wagner College, Staten Island, added her biggest achievement yet: being crowned Miss New Jersey 2007.
"It was quite a feat. I was not expecting it at all," said the effervescent 22 year old. "This was only my second pageant ever. I won my local (pageant) and then, I suddenly won Miss New Jersey, which was very surprising."
In order to earn a place as one of only 28 contestants vying for the crown in Ocean City last Saturday, Polumbo had entered and won her only other pageant appearance as Miss Seashore Line. Consumed with her studies and performing interests, the decision to enter her first pageant was nothing more than a fun thing to try for Polumbo.
"I've been very busy performing in musical theater, and never really considered myself a 'Pageant Patty,' but I gave it a try and I won, which was fantastic, and then, at Miss New Jersey, I ended up winning again," said Polumbo.
The Miss New Jersey Education Foundation is a scholarship organization whose mission is to provide educational assistance to young women between the ages of 17 and 24. The program also provides these young women with a forum from which they can raise awareness and affect change for social issues that are important to them.
While a specific date and location have yet to be established, Polumbo will now represent the Garden State as she prepares to compete in the upcoming Miss America pageant.
Polumbo credited her mentor-voice teacher Regina McGowan, Peter Bruno and Carol Taylor, director of the Miss Seashore Line pageant, as pillars of support during the competition in helping to soothe her nerves.
"Probably not knowing what to expect next
was the toughest thing because it was so new to
me," Polumbo said of her pageant experience. "So I was very anxious."
Performing on stage since she was a girl helped
ease Polumbo's transition under the spotlight.
She performed last year in the lead role of "Ariel" in "The Voyage of the Little Mermaid"
at MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
"That was really exciting," she said. "I have a lot of stage experience, and I'm used to being around a lot of people, and I'm used to having an audience, but the one thing I have to get used to is the camera because I'm not so familiar with that."
Her beauty and talent aside, Polumbo further impressed the judges with her platform to promote Internet safety awareness, an issue which has personally affected someone near
and dear to her.
"It's a very pressing issue today," she said. "I chose this because of a personal issue that
happened with it to someone in my family, and because I hear about the dangers on the news all the time."
Polumbo hopes she can parlay her Miss New Jersey crown into a greater awareness and education of Internet safety issues to help protect children from cyber-predators and dangerous situations.
"I don't think enough is being done in schools today," she said. "I'd like to capitalize some of the momentum into much needed curriculum in schools today focusing on Internet safety, and I also want to reach out to parents so they too can learn the ins and outs of the computer, since most of their children tend to know it a lot better than they do."
| 
)