Miss SWOSU 2020 Natalee Karcher is preparing to finally compete in the annual Miss Oklahoma Pageant, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karcher will compete for the title with 40 other women from across the state during the event June 5-12 in Tulsa. To prepare, Karcher said she has been keeping up with current events through the news, having weekly mock interviews and even debating with her brother, who is in law school.
Karcher said participants will have their interviews, social impact pitches and talent performances to judges throughout the week, and the Top 10 will do it again live that Saturday.
New to the pageant scene, Miss SWOSU is Karcher’s first competition and title. She was encouraged to enter by SWOSU Police Chief Kendra Brown — who also helps organize the pageant — for a chance to earn money.
Despite the inexperience, Karcher won the title November 2019. After COVID-19 shut down the Miss Oklahoma organization months later, the title was extended through 2021.
Karcher said she has learned a lot in her role as Miss SWOSU and preparing for the Miss Oklahoma pageant.
“First off, I learned I am very, very bad at walking,” she said. “That was one of the biggest critiques on my score sheet.”
She also said she went in assuming pageant entrants were all pretty girls who maybe weren’t the brightest, but quickly realized how wrong she was.
“We have girls going into law school. We have girls going into medical school. We have girls going into physical therapy school,” Karcher said. “They are some of the most intelligent women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.”
Karcher said the interviews are intense and entrants must be prepared to intelligently answer questions on a wide variety of subjects from politics to current events.
“They will rapid fire those questions, and you better know what you are talking about or you will look really silly in front of the judges,” she said.
In addition to preparing for the upcoming competition, Karcher has begun speaking with local school and organizations again.
She said she had a handful of speaking engagements before the COVID-19 pandemic began but has been going nonstop since things have opened back up.