Freweini Hadera, a construction management graduate student from Ethiopia, is crowned as Miss International at the Oklahoma State University International Student Organization’s annual Mr. and Miss International pageant.
By Danielle Davis
Oklahoma, USA (OSU) — It was a full house for the International Student Organization’s annual Mr. and Miss International pageant Wednesday night.
Students, families and friends gathered in the OSU Student Union Little Theater to support the contestants of this year’s pageant.
With charismatic hosts, Brittnee Cooks and Joseph Jones, the atmosphere was thick with excitement and eagerness to see who would be crowned OSU’s Mr. and Miss International.
The hosts introduced the four judges before the contestants took the stage for their opening dance.
The opening dance, which Nash McQuarters choreographed, was a montage of three Michael Jackson songs; “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Remember the Time” and “Black or White.”
On an overhead above the stage, the video for “Black or White” played as each contestant performed a brief dance symbolizing his or her culture.
Following a performance of a three-man team of Malaysian drummers, each contestant shared a traditional outfit with a brief explanation of its symbolism.
Contestants performed with traditional and contemporary music.
Miss India Neetha Sindhu started the talent portion with a dance called Dashavatar, which displayed India’s elegant traditions. Mr. India Bharathwaj Gopalakrishnan played a fusion of classical Indian and Western music on an Indian bamboo flute.
Mr. China Zongkai Tian displayed his Chinese calligraphy and the delicate and powerful art of Kung Fu.
Mr. Nepal Bigyan Koirala and Miss Nepal Preety Mathema gave separate energetic customary and modern dances.
Mr. Vietnam Danh Pham Phan ended the talent section with an acoustic guitar and vocal performance of “Winter Lady.”
The last round before crowning Mr. and Miss International required each contestant to answer questions such as, “How can you help incoming students with culture shock?” or “How would you showcase your culture among the vast international population at OSU?”
Mr. and Miss India were second runners-up. First runners-up Miss Nepal and Mr. Vietnam were each rewarded with a scholarship check for $150 and a glass plaque for their achievements.
Crowned as Mr. and Miss International were Miss Africa Freweini Hadera, a construction management graduate student, and Mr. Nepal, a media management graduate student.
Hadera and Koirala each received a scholarship check for $350 and a glass plaque for their new titles as Mr. and Miss International.
Hadera said she was exceedingly happy with her win, proud to represent her country and looks forward to putting her new title to good use.
“I am so happy,” Hadera said. “I look forward to being on ISO’s side to help international students achieve whatever they want and also help international students battle their challenges.”
Koirala had some of the same aspirations but with a slightly broader view.
“What I see here at Oklahoma State is that we need to gather up more people to come to events like this,” Koirala said. “I saw a few empty seats. We need to reach out to more professors, more students. We’ve got 32,000 people all across the state that are apart of OSU. We can bring them all together.”
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