Holland Brown was crowned the 2013 Miss Auburn University in front of an extremely enthusiastic packed house at Auburn High School's Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Jan. 26.
"I'm really excited," Brown said. "It's representing Auburn, my school, and it's scholarship money straight to Auburn so it's great."
Placing in the pageant was first runner up and swimsuit winner Ashley Willis, second runner up and talent winner Meg McGullin, third runner up and swimsuit winner Sydney Waid and fourth runner up Jessica Dyk.
Brown was also selected as Miss Congeniality.
"Honestly I think I'm more excited about congeniality," she said. "That means so much more to me because it's not so much based on what I did on stage necessarily which is great."
Brown is not new to the Miss Alabama pageant circuit. She has participated in several pageants, but this was her first time being crowned the winner.
"I have done almost 25 Miss Alabama preliminaries, but I have always wanted to be Miss Auburn University more than any of the others," Brown said. "I'm looking at all of the others as 25 practice rounds."
Brown chose as her platform, Walk for a Cure: Support for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This foundation means a lot as juvenile diabetes has affected people close to her.
"My two best friends were diagnosed with diabetes when we were in middle school, within the same year," Brown said. "It's something that really struck a passion in me. We started doing walks with them in Birmingham and now that I'm in Auburn, I'm continuing to do work with the foundation."
While the night is a joyous occasion for Brown, it's also a bitter sweet and sad moment for 2012 Miss Auburn University, Emily Jordan as it marks the end of her time representing the school.
" It's definitely mixed emotions," Jordan said. "It was such a blast to be Miss Auburn University. It was amazing to go out on stage at Miss Alabama and say that I was representing Auburn University, knowing that I had 25,000 fellow students behind me and being able to represent them. I'm also so happy for Holland and everything that's coming for her and I think she'll do a great job."
There were no empty seats in the large Auburn Performing Arts Center and keeping the crowd interested was former Miss Auburn University and Miss Alabama 2011 Courtney Porter who was emcee for the night.
The group responsible for putting on such a great show was Auburn's SGA.
"It was packed and I have never been to a preliminary where there was not an empty seat," Brown said. "It really shows how many people were here to support Auburn and that this is a big deal to people at Auburn."
President of SGA, Owen Parrish, was very pleased with the SGA's efforts and how the night turned out.
"I think it went great, maybe one or two kinks, but other than that it went great," Parrish said. "Our winner is exceptional and I'm sure she'll do great with her new roll."
Brown will represent Auburn in June at the Miss Alabama pageant.
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