Carly Ashlock
Multimedia Journalist.
Digital Marketer.
Retired pageant girl.
My Story
My journey with the Miss America Organization began when I won my first preliminary competition, Miss Johnson County in 2015. I went on to become Miss Arkansas Tech University in 2016 and Miss Arkansas Valley in 2017.
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Over the course of my three years competing in the MAO, I earned over $15,000 in scholarships. In addition to my academic scholarships, the scholarship money I earned while competing allowed me to graduate debt-free with my undergraduate degree.
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It was through this organization that I discovered my love for communicating and relationship building which led me to pursue my Master of Arts in Multimedia Journalism and my profession in Digital Marketing.
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I was no longer a part of the organization when Miss America 2.0 was introduced but many people that I cared about were from friends I had competed with to volunteers who had given freely of their time and resources to create the experiences and opportunities I benefited from. They were the inspiration for this project.
Acknowledgments
A sincere thank you to the following people who took the time to share their stories with me:
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Jessie Ward Bennett
Jim Collins
Kara (Dickens) Crowley
Darynne Dahlem
Emma (Pitts) George
Sophe Sligh
Sydney Wendfeldt
* This site is to serve as my professional portfolio to fulfill a graduation requirement for the Master of Arts in Multimedia Journalism at Arkansas Tech University.