As the Cover and Calendar Girl Pageant season nears, Grambling State University’s current queen Tiara Thomas hosted a series of workshops to help this year’s competitors prepare.
With a focus on interview and etiquette, Thomas called upon the 2011-2012 Cover Girl queen Geralka “Gerri” Jackson to help her demonstrate proper interview etiquette.
While the student union’s Lincoln Room is large, only a little over a dozen young ladies showed up for the workshop. Thomas first had an icebreaker with the nervous hopefuls by having them point out flaws and perks with some of the current calendar girls’ interview attire who were standing at the front of the room.
“Command the Room,” Jackson said. “Be confident . . . finagle your platform in at all opportunities.”
Thomas and Jackson then gave the girls an idea about how to answer questions and how to compose one’s self in an interview by holding a mock interview.
The girls then had their to turn to try out all that they had learned by answering sample questions that Thomas wrote on the board. Thomas reminded the girls to, “be your alter ego . . . be able to tell them that the sky is purple and make them believe it.”
After reviewing the advice and taking some final notes, the girls posed for a group picture before leaving Some exchanged contact information wtith Jackson for further advice and assistance.
Junior business management major, Regernique Rasco, the only one planning to participate in the Miss Cover Girl Pageant, said the workshop, “exposed [me] to alotta things I need to work on.”
Geralka Jackson was Grambling State University’s 2011-2012 Miss Covergirl. She graduated in 2013 with a 3.5 GPA and made the top ten in Ebony magazine’s Top HBCU Campus Queens.