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Michelle Kang of Stafford is crowned Miss Virginia in 1996. She is now a mother of three living in Maryland.
Michelle Kang at the 2009 Miss Virginia pageant with fellow judge A. J. Dees Jr. |
BY EDIE GROSS
Stafford High School graduate Michelle Kang still has the Miss Virginia crown she won 13 years ago, though it's not as shiny as it once was.
She wore that crown all over the state that year, and everywhere she went, children reached out to touch it.
She thought about having it cleaned. But Kang likes the crown better with the dirt, cupcake crumbs and other particles the kids left behind.
It reminds her of how rich the experience was.
"That was one of the toughest jobs of my career," said Kang, 35, who now lives in Rockville, Md., with her husband and three sons. "It was also one of the most rewarding because of the opportunity to travel and speak and meet people from all walks of life."
Kang was the last Fredericksburg-area woman to win the Miss Virginia title, before Spotsylvania County resident Caressa Cameron captured it in June. Kang was one of the pageant judges who chose Cameron to represent the state at this week's Miss America Pageant.
"She was a star from the beginning. She made a big impression on all of us. She was so natural and conversational with us in the interview, but she had a real presence, a charisma onstage," said Kang, a graduate of the College of William & Mary. "She's an outstanding Miss Virginia and would be an outstanding Miss America."
Kang's favorite part of competing in the 1996 Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., was the camaraderie among the contestants. She became great friends with that year's Miss Maryland, Susan Alexander, and even set up Alexander with a college friend of hers. The two later married.
Competing in the national pageant is like preparing for the ultimate job interview, Kang said. The media are watching. Pageant officials are watching. Fellow contestants are watching.
Grace under pressure is the key to doing well at that level, she said.
"People are wondering what kind of person you are. Are you real or are you different in person than you are onstage?" she said. "I think the person who does well is the person who isn't ruffled by the constant change in schedule. Just enjoy the moments and be yourself."
Kang left Atlantic City with an award for most-talented non-finalist, even after a microphone fell on her piano strings, hampering her performance of Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2."
The daughter of Paul and Miwha Kang of Stafford, she spent the next year touring the state, championing the cause of child-abuse prevention.
Since then, she's accomplished plenty. Kang earned a Master of Education from the University of Virginia followed by another master's degree from the University of Oxford in England.
Later, she was the associate director of community and public affairs at Harvard University and a resident adviser--along with husband Hans Christian Ackerman--to undergraduates there.
Now she handles strategic planning and client relations for Bright Horizons Family Solutions, an international company that provides on-site child care for major corporations, hospitals and universities. She's on maternity leave to care for her youngest child, who is just 2 weeks old.
"I am very high on sleep deprivation," she joked in a recent phone call.
It's all a balancing act, but spending a year as Miss Virginia and enduring a run at Miss America prepared her for all that and more, Kang said.
"There is no job interview process I've ever gone through that ever equaled that process," she said. "If you can go through that, you can go through anything."
Edie Gross: 540/374-5428
Email: egross@freelancestar.com
