Newly crowned Miss UNA looks toward upcoming year

Anne Marie Hall is crowned Miss UNA 2012 at Norton Auditorium Jan. 28.

For a long time, student Anne-Marie Hall said she has wanted to be crowned Miss UNA. She remembers dreaming of the title from an early age.

“I have always dreamed of being Miss UNA,” Hall said. “As a little girl, (my mom) would always bring me to school, and we would always go to the pageant as a tradition.”

Hall’s win still surprises her, even days after she was crowned in front of hundreds of people Jan. 28 in Norton Auditorium.

“It has not sunk in that I’m Miss UNA,” Hall said. “It was so shocking to me, because all I cared about was getting out there and showing them me.”

Hall is excited to use her position as Miss UNA to promote her platform, which is Americans for the Arts.

“For me, it was more or less I want to be the voice for people (that don’t have the opportunity to speak up),” she said.

Hall said she looks forward to meeting with community leaders and administrators to start promoting UNA across the state. She wants to use her role to recruit students to come to the university.

Head Coach Bobby Wallace was right when he said he wanted to recruit students from this area, Hall said.

“There are fine people in this area that kind of bypass UNA, and I don’t know why,” Hall said.

Hall’s platform is centered on one of her loves—the arts. The arts have been in her life since she was young, she said. She plans to be a music teacher after she graduates, and has known this since she was in middle school, she said.

According to Hall, her mother Susan was the reason she started in the arts. She remembers listening to her mother practice piano for church every Sunday morning, and how special it made her feel.

Hall started voice lessons at age 6, and has participated in choral and musical theater productions since.

“I hope to use my Miss UNA role to go to these communities to help them see that the arts really matter,” Hall said. “If you have the arts thriving in your community, you will have it in your schools.”

The organization Hall hopes to promote is Americans for the Arts, a non-profit organization centered on promoting and advocating for the arts.