She is beauty. She is grace. She is Miss Pennsylvania Collegiate America.

Penn State is home to royalty now as Alivia Jacobs was recently crowned Miss Pennsylvania Collegiate America. Jacobs is a sophomore studying psychology when she’s not representing the great keystone state.

In June, Jacobs will head to Little Rock, Arkansas to compete in the Miss Collegiate America Pageant.

Between interview prep and class, Jacobs sat down with Onward State to talk about pageant life on top of being a student during a global pandemic.

Onward State: Can you tell us about your pageant experience?

Alivia Jacobs: I have been competing since I was 7 years old, so for 12 years now, almost 13. It feels a lot longer than that. My cousin competed in pageants and she’s several years older than I am. She was the first runner-up to Miss Pennsylvania, so I grew up watching her compete in pageants and seeing the difference she was making in her community. That kind of sparked some interest in me doing that, so I started competing and I haven’t looked back since.

OS: What does your role of Miss Pennsylvania Collegiate America entail? 

AJ: Our national platform is B.R.A.V.E., which is building respect and values for everyone. It’s an anti-bullying campaign, so that’s what I’m going to be spreading this year. I also do a lot of work with the Jared Box Program, which was started in State College 18 years ago. It was about a little boy named Jared who had brain cancer, and he would bring toys and games to play with at the hospital. After he passed away, his parents did what they assumed would be a one-day boxing event to remember him. They filled shoe-sized boxes with toys and games and then donated them to the hospital. Eighteen years and 750,00 boxes later, we still exist.

That has been something really close to my heart. I have worked with them for about five years now. At Penn State, I am an intern through them. That’s what I’ll be doing this year — a lot of work with the B.R.A.V.E. stuff and the Jared Box project and figuring out how they fit together. It’s going to be a lot of community service…a lot of giving back and that is my favorite part. 

OS: What are you looking forward to most in your role as Miss Pennsylvania Collegiate America? 

AJ: I’m definitely looking forward to the community service aspect. I’m really excited to travel to Little Rock and compete for Miss Collegiate America. That is going to be really exciting, but the friendships that you make in pageantry is something that will last a lifetime. I have competed in other systems. In 2019, I competed for Miss Teen International and met a girl from Australia. I still talk to her to this day. It’s kind of weird because you never know who you are going to meet when you travel and compete. The friendships are really exciting, and the community service is awesome. Obviously, competing in pageants is something I love to do so it’s been really cool.  

OS: What has been your favorite memory in this journey so far? 

AJ: Two summers ago I was recognized on the Pennsylvania Senate floor for all of my community service involvement and everything I had been doing with the Jared Box Project. That has been one of my favorite memories. I got to meet Judy Ward, a senator. It’s just one of those things where at 18 years old, you don’t expect to have happen to you and then they happen and you’re like, “Wow! This is really cool!”

OS: Going back to the night of the pageant, what did it feel like when you heard your name called? 

AJ: It was definitely really exciting. I’m on the younger end of girls that can compete. It’s for girls in their senior year of high school to age 27, but you have to be enrolled in college. For me, one of the youngest contestants there, I really went into this weekend with a positive attitude. Yes, I was going to try my best, but if I hadn’t won, it was going to be okay. Obviously, I was still going to wake up tomorrow and the sun would be shining. I was excited for the opportunities that still laid ahead of me if I hadn’t won. 

Of course, I won and I am standing there in shock because as much as I had given 110% and as much as I wanted to win, it wasn’t my expectation to come in there and win. For me, it was definitely pure shock and adrenaline. I was looking for my mom. I was like, “Oh my gosh! I just won! We are going to Little Rock! This is so exciting!”

OS: How has COVID-19 affected pageants this year? 

AJ: It’s definitely different. We had our interviews over Zoom, which was an entirely new experience for me. As much as I have Zoom classes every single day, I have never really sat down and had something super professional over Zoom like that. It was weird. It was different, but it was okay. There were no technical difficulties, which was something I had been super stressed about. There are just things in life that you can’t control- like if your power goes off or your Wi-Fi cuts out. That aspect was definitely concerning and I was super stressed out until I got there. Everything worked out fine. 

There were mask mandates. We wore our masks all weekend unless we were on stage by ourselves. When we were waiting in the wing or in the hallway, we would all have our masks on and we were all socially distancing. Unless you were in pictures, that was a personal choice if you felt comfortable or not taking your mask off.

When you were on stage you could have your mask off because you were 12 feet from the nearest person. Those were the little things COVID affected. I’m definitely not used to holding a mask in my hand while I’m walking on stage or while I’m talking. It was definitely weird and different, but I think that’s what makes it a little more special because of all the challenges that have been the last year. It made it a little sweeter to come off with a really, really great weekend. 

OS: How have you handled balancing pageant life and student life? 

AJ: It’s definitely been different, I can tell you that right now. It’s a lot of weekends of where I was coming home and doing events where I was running to Pittsburgh or dropping off Jared Boxes somewhere. It was a lot of doing work during the week and then coming home and having a set plan of what we were doing on the weekend. I have yet to feel overwhelmed, which is a good thing.

My mom and dad have always stressed to me that school comes first and academics is something super important to me. Putting them first has always been a priority to me. Pageants are something that I do for fun and are super important to me, but at the end of the day, I’m coming out of Penn State with a degree. We have a calendar where we list everything that I need to do pageant-wise so I can have it in the back of my head that I have an appointment or a dress fitting or a deadline for school. Keeping myself organized has been super important. 

OS: Speaking of being a student, why Penn State? 

AJ: My dad went to Penn State. He’s a big Penn Stater. He absolutely loved it. He did a 2+2 program, so he always felt like the two years he spent on campus were just not enough. I went to a really, really tiny high school, so going to a big school was something I wanted to do and somewhere I needed to go. I live so close to campus that I would go up on the weekends.

One of my close friend’s grandparents has season tickets to football games, so I kept having all of these connections back to Penn State. People say when you walk onto campus and you feel like you’re home that’s how you know, and I just knew stepping onto campus that this was going to be home for me. That’s a very peaceful feeling I went through when I knew Penn State was home. I wouldn’t change it for the world. 

OS: What are you involved with on campus? 

AJ: I am involved in THON. Again, something that is super important to me. In high school, we had a mini-THON. My junior and senior year is when we first brought it into my school under the direction of me and a couple of other students that love THON and love what it stands for. I was head of fundraising for my junior and senior years of high school. Coming to Penn State I knew that was going to be a big part of my life and it has been. I was on Donor and Alumni Relations my freshman year and this year on the Merchandise committee. THON was one of the reasons I came to Penn State. 

OS: As per Onward State tradition, if you were a dinosaur what would you be and why? 

AJ: One of the dinosaurs that fly…that have wings…I can’t remember what they are called.

OS: A pterodactyl?

AJ:  Yeah! I would be a pterodactyl! I have always wanted to fly. You know the dreams you have about flying? It just feels so freeing. For me, I feel like I would be a pterodactyl so I could fly all over. I won’t need to get in a car and drive. I could just be like “Oh, I want to go to Paris this weekend! I’ll just be a pterodactyl and fly to Paris this weekend!”