By Janelle Henderson
Shakaola Blackburn stands 5-foot-5, 132 pounds, with caramel skin and sandy blonde, shoulder-length hair. At first glance, you can’t help but think she’s beautiful. Perhaps, you think, she’s a member of a sorority. Perhaps just another aspiring model. Perhaps another dumb blonde.
She’s most of those things. Except the last one.
In reality, Blackburn is a senior Nursing major who recently won fourth runner-up at the Miss Black USA pageant held in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 7. She was drawn into the pageant at the insistence of Angelia Reedus, Miss Black Kentucky’s director of pageant relations.
“I knew if anyone could do it, she could,” Reedus said.
After weeks of Reedus’ prodding, Blackburn filled out the application. The pageant was different from other beauty pageants she had heard of, emphasizing health and fitness and excluding a swimsuit competition. But the deal-clincher was Blackburn’s desire to highlight the academic accomplishments of African-American youth.
“People see the African-American community as lazy,” she said. “But we have brains and can do other things, positive things.”
Blackburn is a perfect example of the positive. She is an ambitious young woman who maintains her 3.8 GPA while being very involved on campus and in her community.
Outside of being in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Incorporated sorority, she has been a C.O.N.E.C.T. mentor, a member of Initiatives for Nursing Diversity Excellence, a Louisville Lady, and a member of U of L’s women’s rowing team.
She also devotes time to HIV/AIDS outreach programs, participating in the Louisville AIDS Walk and currently working with the Louisville Metro Health Department HIV/AIDS prevention services department. She made HIV/AIDS awareness her platform at the Miss Black USA pageant because of the detrimental effects the virus has on the black female community.
“The numbers are growing by the day, especially with African-American women,” she said.
“Sometimes I think the African-American community takes it lightly, thinking, ‘It can’t happen to me,’ but it can happen to anyone. Just look at the statistics.”
When she’s not busy with community service or on-campus organizations, Blackburn works three third shifts a week in the oncology department at Kosair’s Children Hospital.
As a part of the clinicals class in the School of Nursing, students are required to complete 24 hours a week of practical experience in their field. Blackburn had the same option, but she chose to work in the cancer unit and go to school, with little sleep on the side, in order to finish by mid-November.
Still, no matter how busy she is, Blackburn makes time for her family. She has six younger siblings she sees as often as her schedule allows her, and she talks to her parents as much as she can. On Sundays, she eats a family dinner at her grandmother’s house.
Although Blackburn’s father moved to California after her parents divorced, this hasn’t ended their good relationship. He’s still one of the first people she calls when she’s in need.
“I tell my dad everything,” she said. “He’s a huge fan of mine. He actually took my bio from the pageant’s Web site to work and showed it off to all his co-workers.”
She also has a good relationship with her mother, a woman who Blackburn said inspires her through her strength.
“I look to my mom as my biggest motivator,” she said. “I look at her and see that this is a woman that raised seven kids by herself. If she can do that, there’s nothing I can’t do.”
Blackburn said she is proud to have a God-fearing mother who brought up her family in the church.
She now attends Sure Foundation Ministries, a non-denominational church she believes caused her spiritual growth and helped shape her into the woman she is.
“My faith has gotten me far. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.
Because of her kind heart and dedicated work ethic, Blackburn is well-respected by her superiors.
Amanda Bridgewater, graduate adviser of the Beta Epsilon chapter of AKA, has known Blackburn for over two years. She describes Blackburn as trustworthy, sincere and dependable, but says her best asset is her humility.
“She doesn’t see herself as extraordinary, but I think she is,” she said.
Blackburn is also seen as an inspiration for other young African-Americans.
“I don’t think she sees she’s a strong role model,” said Alona Pack, project director of INDE. “She’s very involved and she’s probably not aware of the effect she’s had on her peers.”
In the small amount of free time she has, Blackburn said she loves to read poetry by Maya Angelou, continue her work in ballet and jazz dancing, and shop for clothes at Wet Seal and Pitaya.
Out of her love for fashion, she reads Vogue and dabbles in modeling. Last year, Blackburn was signed to Kymeleon Models, an agency owned by Miss Black Kentucky’s Reedus.
Although she enjoys the rush of working the catwalk and flirting with the camera while doing print work, “education comes first,” she said.
When Blackburn graduates in December, she will take a semester off from school to work at either University Hospital or Norton’s Hospital.
She’ll spend her summer taking prerequisites for medical school and finally begin medical school in the fall.
She’s also thinking of running for Miss Kentucky. She wants to continue with modeling as long as it doesn’t interfere with her school.
But whatever she does, she won’t be known as that AKA girl; she won’t be known as a wannabe model or a dumb blonde. She will be appreciated for being beautiful, inside and out.
“I don’t think she knows how beautiful she is,” Reedus said. “Her spirit is so beautiful.”
