Editor’s note: This story has been edited to change several inaccuracies.
After a life full of challenges, a deaf University student has won the Miss Capital City Pageant, qualifying her for the Miss Louisiana Pageant.
Andrea Sonnier, English senior, said she has only been involved in pageants for about a year.
“I got involved in pageants because it gives girls opportunities to further their education and give back to their community,” Sonnier said.
Sonnier is now preparing for the Miss Louisiana Pageant, which she will attend June 23 through 25. If she wins, she will continue on to Miss America 2012.
This will be the second time Sonnier participates in Miss Louisiana. According to her interpreter, Dawn Couvillion of University Disability Services, Sonnier won Miss Congeniality at Miss Louisiana 2010.
Couvillion described Sonnier as “a very outgoing, personable individual — enjoyable to be around.”
Sonnier said many people mistake Miss America and its preliminary pageants for a beauty contest like Miss USA, but it is actually a scholarship pageant that has strict requirements.
The first requirement for participants is they must be students, because the main purpose of the pageant is to inspire girls to further their education.
“I plan to attend Gallaudet University this fall to receive my master’s in deaf education,” Sonnier said. “I also want to … receive a Ph.D. in critical pedagogy.”
The second requirement is that all participants have a talent.
Sonnier said her talent is dancing. She has been a Tiger Girl for three years and will perform a jazz number at her upcoming pageant.
Couvillion said Sonnier was often discouraged and told not to dance because she couldn’t hear the music, but it didn’t stop her from doing what she loved.
“She is extremely talented, and despite the barriers growing up, she has found a way to realize her dreams and loves to perform for the crowds,” Couvillion said.
The last requirement, and most important to Sonnier, is that each contestant have a platform in which she raises awareness for something she feels passionate about.
“Not only is Andrea a lovely and extremely talented young woman, her platform reaching out to the deaf community and those closely related to it has far reaching impact potential,” Couvillion said.
Sonnier said being deaf is a blessing and not a disability, and it has not held her back in life. Instead, she said it has only pushed her further.
She added most people are unaware that the common term “hearing impaired” is actually offensive to deaf culture. Deaf people don’t see it as a disability and feel no one else should either.
“I have a different ability, not a disability,” Sonnier said.
 
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Contact Devon Walsh at [email protected]