Smiling women, formal dresses and flashing cameras. For many, that’s the image that the word “pageantry” calls to mind.

But the reality is that it is so much more than that. Within the Wichita State community lies a culture of pageantry about showing pride for yourself, your community and your roots.

For Khanhvy Ta, a WSU marketing student and 2023 Miss Vietnam Wichita, pageantry was not something she was always interested in. When the opportunity arose for her to compete, though, she saw it as a chance to educate others about her culture.

“Here, the Vietnamese culture is slowly dying down. And so as someone who’s in college and super involved at WSU, it was a great opportunity for me to be involved,” Ta said. “Becoming Miss Vietnam Wichita, it just allowed me to have another platform that will let me bring more awareness to the Vietnamese culture.”

Amelia Boor, a senior at Eisenhower High School and 2024 Miss Wichita Asian Festival was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity to represent American Samoa in the pageant. Boor, who moved to Wichita from Alaska three years ago, will also be competing in Miss Kansas Teen in March 2025.

“I haven’t really been a part of a lot of Asian American culture here in Wichita,” Boor said. “I haven’t been able to find that big of a community, but this pageant has helped me meet some brilliant, talented Asian American women, and they have all been so incredibly kind in letting me into their community, and it has been just a wonderful sisterhood that I have found within the pageant.”

Ta, who also competed in Miss Wichita Asian Festival in 2023, highlighted how pageantry is much more than just skin deep.

“I don’t think people realize that it’s not just about beauty. Some are just primarily beauty pageants, but there are other pageants out there that are to show off your culture, just like I did,” Ta said. “But there are also other pageants that are based off of what you’re passionate about, what cause you want to be represented for.”

For Ta, preparing for pageants meant more “mental preparation than physical,” to get ready to be in the spotlight.

“I’m also a dancer, and so I’ve always been on stage with other people, but I’ve never been on stage alone,” Ta said. “And so

just mentally preparing myself to be vulnerable in front of all these people and have them judge you based on the way that you look and the way that you walk, like your platform, that was very hard to prepare for.”

Winning pageants like these is an honor but also a responsibility. Boor explained just what being Miss Wichita Asian Festival means to her.

“It means being a representative of my community and showing up to these events in Wichita, wearing the crown and wearing the sash, wearing my cultural attire,” Boor said. “It really means that I am a representative of my ancestors, being an American Samoan, being a representative of my mother, my family, and also my community here in Wichita. And it really has been a wonderful experience.”

One of WSU’s many student organizations, the Delta Mu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, holds its own pageant to honor young women and let them share their platforms. Chapter president AJ Haynes explains the purpose of the Black and Gold Scholarship Pageant, which WSU students can still apply to compete in.

“It is a long-standing tradition within Alpha Phi Alpha, to give back to the women on these college campuses who truly don’t

get a lot of the appreciation that they deserve or they often go unnoticed,” Haynes said. “So we give back to those women through scholarship money and also providing them a platform to talk about causes that they’re passionate about.”

Haynes explained more about how students can benefit from competing in the pageant.

“There is, in my opinion, no better platform for like these youngsters do and also get something out of it,” Haynes said. “(They don’t) walk away with just a crown, they walk away with fun and experience. They walk away with sisters, along with the crown of sash and money because at the end of the day, we’re college students, right? So come and support them.”