{"id":159652,"date":"2024-08-05T10:48:31","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T14:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=159652"},"modified":"2024-08-05T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T14:48:31","slug":"miss-usa-title-goes-to-army-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=159652","title":{"rendered":"Miss USA title goes to Army officer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Miss USA 2024 Alma Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, Ma’am! Miss USA is Alma Cooper, better known as 2nd Lieutenant Cooper, is a West Point graduate currently attended Stanford while an officer in the Army. Somehow she still finds time to do pageants.<\/p>\n

Cooper’s crowning follows a tumultuous year that’s seen a few Miss USAs. I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of you about that, since we all closely follow the pageant circuit and the politics therein.<\/p>\n

From CNN<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s Alma Cooper, a US Army officer, was named Miss USA on Sunday, becoming the third person to hold the title this year following the shock resignation of 2023\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old, who has a Master\u2019s in data science from Stanford University, beat 50 other contestants in a pageant that included swimwear and evening gown competitions. Kentucky\u2019s Connor Perry and Oklahoma\u2019s Danika Christopherson were named first and second runners up, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the daughter of a migrant worker, a proud Afro Latina woman and an officer of the United States Army, I am living the American dream,\u201d she had told judges during a Q&A session at Sunday\u2019s finale. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything that my life and my mother have taught me, it\u2019s that your circumstances never define your destiny: You can make success accessible through demanding excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper was crowned on stage by previous titleholder, Savannah Gankiewicz of Hawaii, who inherited the tiara in May after Utah\u2019s Noelia Voigt stepped down in highly controversial circumstances.<\/p>\n

The glitzy televised event capped three months of turbulence for pageant organizers sparked by Voigt\u2019s surprise resignation \u2014 and that of then-reigning Miss Teen USA, New Jersey\u2019s UmaSofia Srivastava, just days later. The show featured no explicit references to the controversy, though Gankiewicz described her unexpected three-month stint as Miss USA as \u201cthe most unique reign in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Announcing her decision via Instagram in May, Voigt attributed her resignation to mental health reasons. But social media users quickly spotted that the first letter of the first 11 sentences of her cryptic post spelled \u201cI am silenced,\u201d sparking rumors of a strict non-disclosure agreement.<\/p>\n

Her resignation letter, later obtained by CNN, alleged delays in receiving prizes and a \u201ctoxic work environment\u201d that \u201cat best, is poor management and, at worst, is bullying and harassment.\u201d Voigt also claimed to have been sexually harassed during a public appearance due the Miss USA organization\u2019s failure to provide an \u201ceffective handler.\u201d<\/p>\n

Srivastava, who won the Miss Teen USA competition (a companion event, under the same ownership, for contestants aged 14 to 19), meanwhile attributed her resignation to a clash in \u201cpersonal values\u201d with the Miss USA organization. Both women\u2019s mothers then appeared on Good Morning America, with Srivastava\u2019s mother, Barbara, saying the beauty queens had been \u201cill-treated, abused, bullied and cornered,\u201d and that \u201cthe job of their dreams turned out to be a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizers and the pageants\u2019 parent company, the Miss Universe Organization, did not respond to CNN\u2019s requests for comment at the time of the double resignation. Miss USA president Laylah Rose released a statement at the end of May, reported by the Los Angeles Times, refuting Voigt\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n

NEW RULES, GROUNDBREAKING FIRSTS<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s proceedings began with an elimination, as the 51 contestants were narrowed down to a top 20 based on judges\u2019 scores from Saturday\u2019s preliminary competition. The results of a swimwear competition saw the field reduced to 10 ahead of an eveningwear parade.<\/p>\n

The final five were then asked the same question: \u201cHow can we bridge the gap between different cultures and foster understanding and respect?\u201d<\/p>\n

The televised finale, which was hosted by Garcelle Beauvais from \u201cThe Real Housewives of Beverly Hills\u201d and E! News presenter Keltie Knight, saw the contest return to California for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n

Judges included shoe designer Jojo Bragais and former Miss USA titleholders Carole Gist and Lu Parker.<\/p>\n

Sunday marked the first Miss USA pageant to take place since its owner, the Miss Universe Organization, lifted a longstanding age restriction banning women over 28 from participating. Several finalists benefited from the new rule, including 41-year-old Kristina Johnson of Arizona and contestants from Montana, North Dakota, Maryland and Indiana, who are all in their 30s.<\/p>\n

In other firsts, Maryland\u2019s Bailey Anne Kennedy became the first transgender contestant from her state to appear at the finals, and Shavana Clarke of Connecticut arrived as the \u201cfirst openly lesbian Miss USA state titleholder,\u201d according to organizers.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s finale comes three days after Addie Carver of Mississippi was named Miss Teen USA, a title that had remained vacant since Srivastava\u2019s resignation (last year\u2019s first runner-up, Stephanie Skinner, declined to take on the title). Seventeen-year-old Carver is a dance teacher, cheerleader and choreographer who has used her platform to discuss young people\u2019s mental health, telling judges of her own struggles following her father\u2019s death. \u201cAs the next Miss Teen USA I want to make it my mission to know that every little girl who is just like me once is never alone,\u201d she said on stage Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Cooper will now go onto compete in the Miss Universe 2024 contest, which will be held in Mexico later this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a sad state of affairs that one of the Miss USA contestants isn’t even a “Miss”. Soon all women’s competitions will be exclusively male affairs, as God intended.<\/p>\n

For those so inclined, Lieutenant Cooper has an Instagram page<\/a> where she shares photos of herself. She’s even fully dressed in some of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Ma’am! Miss USA is Alma Cooper, better known as 2nd Lieutenant Cooper, is a West … Miss USA title goes to Army officer<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":159653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/159653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}