Miss Gamecock 2018 Meera Bhonsle made her first royal appearance March 2 at Miss South Carolina Workshop Weekend.
Bhonsle, a fourth-year journalism student, was crowned Miss Gamecock 2018 this past December. All local preliminary winners will vie for the title of Miss South Carolina this June with hopes of competing at Miss America.
But before competing at the state competition, all the contestants gather for Workshop Weekend. At Workshop Weekend, the contestants are able to register, turn in an abundance of paperwork, participate in a lottery system determining when they partake in each portion of the competition and bond with their fellow sister queens.
Workshop Weekend is nothing new to Bhonsle. She previously competed at Miss South Carolina as Miss Lexington and has been competing in pageants since she was a child. Throughout her time competing, she has become passionate about her platform: Reading is Leading. As of 2016, in the state of South Carolina, 34 percent of children advancing to the fourth grade do not read on grade level.
“My platform basis is just going into schools and talking to kids and teachers and talking to legislators about how we can close that gap because that’s a huge number,” Bhonsle said.
She will be playing an excerpt from "Swan Lake" on the piano for her talent. To prepare for the swimsuit fitness portion of the completion, she has been working out with a personal trainer at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. But Bhonsle says interview is her favorite portion of the competition.
“I like the challenge that they give us,” Bhonsle said. “They ask a lot of politically weighted questions.”
Winning Miss South Carolina has been a dream of Bhonsle's since she was a little girl. If she wins, she gets to compete at Miss America and travel the state to promote her platform.
“What I’m most excited about, if I were to be crowned Miss South Carolina, would be just working with our state’s kids and being a role model for them," she said.