One hundred percent pure shock.
That’s how Abigail Domen recalls feeling Nov. 12 as she was crowned winner of the 2017 Miss Hawaii Collegiate America Pageant.
Domen was on-stage at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu under flashing stage lights and surrounded by similarly gown-clad contestants.
“I was shocked,” Domen recalls. “I’d been preparing myself for if I won or if I lost.”
As winner, Domen will represent Hawaii at the National Miss Collegiate America Pageant in Arkansas in June 2017. A Hilo native, she’s the first Big Island contestant to ever win the state title — an honor which years ago, the 20-year-old perhaps never imagined she’d get.
Domen is a 2014 Waiakea High School graduate studying psychology at Kapiolani Community College on Oahu. But as a child, she was raised in the foster care system largely by her grandparents and aunties. Growing up without her biological parents, she “always felt like (she) didn’t belong” and “a little out of place.”
“It was kind of discouraging,” Domen said. “I didn’t have the certainty of having my parents come to my parent-teacher conferences, or come to activities with me. So there was that struggle at school growing up.”
Domen was adopted at age 16 by her cousin. It was around that age she began dipping into the pageant world and has since competed in close to a dozen events. She said she was drawn to the Miss Collegiate program for its focus on academics and community service.
The 7-year-old, scholarship-based program does not have a swimsuit or talent phase, according to Amanda Patterson, director of the national program, which caters to girls “who perhaps don’t have a talent or don’t want to wear a swimsuit on stage.”
It’s divided into three divisions — Junior High, High School and Collegiate — and has “hundreds if not thousands” of contestants nationwide, Patterson said.
The program is especially popular in Arkansas, Georgia, Alaska, Colorado and Alabama, Patterson added, but is growing in popularity in Hawaii.
Kristina Lum, executive director of the Hawaii pageant, said 16 Hawaii contestants competed this year including eight from the Big Island.
Lum said she wants to see participation increase even more. She’s also looking to add preliminary pageants in the future, giving contestants more community service opportunities.
The newly crowned Domen said she wants to use her Miss Hawaii Collegiate title to serve as a role model for foster youth. Eventually, she wants to forge a career working with foster children.
Domen also received the pageant’s Community Service Award after spending hours helping organize, collect and donate backpacks to the Hui Malama foster care program in Hilo.
“Having (hardships) made me really empathetic because I’ve been through it and I can really sympathize with people when they feel alone,” Domen said. “I want to give back to (foster children) and help them feel they’re not alone and they have a voice in their community.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
