Not Just a Pretty Face: Miss Vietnam of Southern California to Attend MIT

Step, pause, turn, spin, and pose. Beauty pageantry is an industry that continues to flourish and draw speculation from all parts of the world. Vietnam and its communities at large are no exception. Despite the stigmas of today surrounding pageant contestants as being superficial and lacking intelligence, recent winners of the Miss Vietnam of Southern California scholarship pageant (Hoa Khoi Lien Truong Nam Cali) have shown that physical beauty can, and does, go hand-in-hand with brilliance.

Nathalie Huynh, 17, of Arcadia High School, brought home the title of Miss Vietnam of Southern California 2011 this past February. She was the youngest contestant out of the bunch, and is also the youngest to win this pageant since 1999. A senior in her final semester of high school, Nathalie anxiously awaited her college acceptances. “It’s really bad, I’m losing sleep over it!” she said.

Luckily, she didn’t have to lose sleep for much longer. She was recently informed that she had been accepted by one of her top college picks: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Not exactly an easy feat: according to the school’s website, only 10% of over 16,000 freshman applicants were admitted in 2010.

The sound of Nathalie’s age may conjure images of the teen magazine and reality shows on MTV, but this poised young woman has big plans. She intends to major in chemistry, attend business school for her graduate studies, and eventually work in chemical industries and technology or pharmaceutical research.

“My whole perception of pageants was totally twisted before I came in,” said Nathalie. “I was still a little iffy after I got in, but I’m glad that I got the nerve to actually do it and to go beyond the stereotype of pageants, because this is not a typical pageant. What it stands for and what it does to try and show of the Vietnamese American woman is really a great thing.”

Other recent winners of MVSC have also shown comparable excellence in academia. Sisters Truc Vy (Queen of 2010) and Hoang Vy Le (1st Princess 2009) will soon complete their first year of medical school. Tuyet Ha Dinh, the MVSC winner from 2007, also attended medical school after graduating from UCLA. 2009 contestant Dani Nguyen attended UC Berkeley for college, graduated from the UCLA School of Law, and passed the bar by the age of 24. And VTP’s very own Jennie Le, who is graduating from UC Berkeley this year, was a top ten candidate in 2007.

This year’s pageant was hosted at the 30th anniversary Tet Festival, organized by the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations (Tong Hoi Sinh Vien Mien Nam Cali) in Garden Grove, CA. Twenty young Vietnamese American women, ages ranging from 17 to 26, proved themselves to be multifaceted individuals through displays of dance, speech, talent, and cultural presentation. The academic component requires candidates to be enrolled in high school or college (or have graduated college within the last year) and possess a 2.5 or higher grade point average.

Joining Nathalie as part of the 2011 Royal Court were 1st Princess Khanh Vuong, 21, a biology major at the University of Southern California, and 2nd Princess Mai Vy Hoang, 17, of Villa Park High School. Awarded Miss Photogenic was Tina Chia, 17, of Fountain Valley High School, Miss Ao Dai was Sarah Vu, 19, of CSU San Bernardino, and Miss Congeniality was Kim Pham, 23, from Saddleback College.

To access the pageant application or view the profiles of past contestants, visit www.tetpageant.com.