Rachael Todd hopes she’ll soon become the University of Central Florida’s second Miss America.
 
Todd, a 2009 UCF graduate, will compete in the Miss America 2010 Pageant on Saturday, Jan. 30. TLC will air the pageant live from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. EST. The UCF community is invited to attend a watch party at 7:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Pizza, located in Ferrell Commons on the main campus.

Todd will participate with 52 other contestants from every state and the District of Columbia. If crowned, she will win $50,000 in scholarship funds, adding to the $15,000 she earned when she won the Miss Florida title. 

Todd is UCF’s first Miss Florida winner since Ericka Dunlap in 2003. Dunlap, an Advertising and Public Relations major, went on to win the Miss America crown.

A communications graduate from Oviedo, Todd focused her platform on homelessness and changing the way Americans view and deal with the issue. If crowned Miss America, she plans to continue raising public awareness and addressing the issues of homelessness in America.

“Rachael Todd worked very hard this year,” said Veronica Livesay, co-director of the Miss UCF pageant. “With her amazing Irish dancing and her passion for her platform, I know she'll do a great job of representing UCF and Florida at the Miss America pageant.”

A communications graduate from Oviedo, Todd describes her undergraduate days at UCF as the “perfect college experience.” She was vice president of the Kappa Delta sorority and a member of the Delta Epsilon Iota and Rho Lambda honor societies. She also served on UCF’s Homeless Awareness Committee.

Todd volunteers at the HOPE Foundation in Central Florida, a nonprofit established by her mother in 2006. Her future plans include earning a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on public and nonprofit management.

Todd advanced to the national pageant by winning the Miss Florida title in July in St. Petersburg, where she competed alongside six other UCF students and recent alumni.

She describes her preparations for Miss America as a full-time job, “cementing and putting into place everything I learned in college.”

To learn more about Rachael Todd, visit her Web site at www.rachaeltodd.com.