By:Tom Jordan
RVCer cherishes appearance at Miss USA contest
While her smile lit up the stage in Gary, Indiana, Dana Powell's heart was in Rockville Centre.
And though Powell, also known these days as Miss Massachusetts, did not win the Miss U.S.A. title on March 2, she certainly made an impression as one of the belles of the ball.
The Rockville Centre resident who attends Emerson College in Boston, parlayed elegance, eloquence and beauty into the Miss Massachusetts title last November and represented that state at the Miss U.S.A. pageant on the golden anniversary of the event. The show was broadcast coast-to-coast live on CBS.
The crown eventually went to Miss Texas, Kandace Krueger, but the night belonged to Powell, as far as some partisan Rockville Centre residents were concerned. Her sister Keisha, brother Casey, and parents, as well as her boyfriend and a few aunts and uncles, made the trip to Gary, where Dana spent nearly three weeks preparing for the pageant.
"I think it was the most exhausting experience of my life," said Powell, who went home for spring break immediately following the pageant. "Now that I'm home and have some down time, I'm able to think about everything that I did. It was pretty exciting."
No stranger to pageants -- she was in three junior contests as a child -- Powell was graceful in front of the national television audience. When asked in her personal interview what she has learned about herself in the past year, the 21-year-old beauty said, "That all the success in the world is not my idea of happiness. Happiness is giving of myself."
Among the charities she has supported in Boston include the Patriots' Trail Girl Scouts Council, the Womens' Lunch Place and Childrens' Haven, where she volunteers as a tutor and a mentor. And though she is close to achieving a master's degree in broadcast journalism, Powell is considering strongly a career in secondary education. "Children need quality teachers," she said.
The Powells moved to Rockville Centre from Brooklyn in the early 1990s, when she was in eighth grade. As a student at South Side High School, she got her first taste of acting as a member of the Drama Guild. She has since appeared as an extra in the television show "New York Undercover," as well as films "Private Parts" and Spike Lee's "Clockers."
But the acting credits don't much impress Powell, and she has no aspirations to become an actress. "It's fun and fits with some of the other things I like to do, but it isn't my dream or anything," she said.
As comfortably as she shared a stage with some of the most glamorous and alluring young women in the country, Powell has remained true to her unassuming beliefs. When asked about the most important message Miss U.S.A could convey, she said, "My attractive face might amaze you, but please do not allow my physical beauty to prevent us from possibly becoming friends. If you look closely, you will find an intelligent and loving human being just as excited to know your name as you are to know mine."
