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She stands five feet, nine inches tall and through she may only be 17, she’s all woman.
When Pure Class caught up with the newly crowned Miss Jamaica World 2001 at Spartan Health Club last Thursday, the fresh faced beauty was taking a break from the many demands that accompany her prestigious title.
A recent graduate from Hillel Academy, Regina got her first taste of the spotlight some three years ago when she modeled for well known fashion designer, Francis Keane, whom she has known since childhood.
Earlier this year, Mrs. Keane asked Regina to accompany her to a seminar. Little did she know at the time that it was a Miss Jamaica Seminar. Regina admits that at first her mother was less than thrilled at the idea of her “baby girl” entering a beauty pageant as she felt Regina’s decision would affect the lives of everyone in the household.
“I told myself that I had nothing to lose and it would offer me a wealth of experience and when my mother got behind me it was a hundred percent,” Regina said.
She credits her mother, Georgia Mignott Beavers, who is an audiologist, as being her role model as she felt the drive and determination that are the cornerstone of her mother’s character, have served her well over the years. “To raise three children on your own, takes a lot of strength and determination, she said.
The pageant, Regina says, was a good experience. “I learnt the required speech and diction and social conduct and other things that will assist me through out life.”
Determined person
What was the real score as it pertained among girls who were all vying for the title? Pure Class asked Regina.
“Everyone is always asking if the camaraderie they see is real or if it is just an act. But it’s real,” Regina replied. “We really do get along. I was closest to Kristen Metz, Miss Jamaica Surrey and she is my brother’s girlfriend, so we would oftentimes go home together and stay up talking about the contest.”
On coronation night, she says, she was all nerves but after meditating, she was prepared for the evening’s events. “I’ve always been a very determined person. If I put my mind to something I’ll strive towards it, “said the charismatic beauty.
When asked about her choice of evening wear at the pageant, Regina laughed. She had chosen a red grown with yellow trimmings – a dress which screamed “rasta colours”.
“Everyone was saying – Regina that’s your dress!! You sure you want to wear that? We have a pretty purple on with sparkles on it.’ But I knew this was the dress when Mrs. Keane handed it to me. Mrs. Keane would never do me wrong and if she didn’t think I could carry it off, she would never have given it to me,” Regina said.
Intent on studying Development Psychology after her reign, Regina says that she first got into it in sixth form.
“I found it really interesting and from sixth grade, I’ve always been like an unofficial counselor at school so when I did psychology I said won this is for me.”
Determined to more than just this year’s pretty face, Regina said she is determined to see her project through to completion.
“I need to bring across the importance that hearing to speech development. Speech cannot be properly developed without hearing. Many people are not aware of or understand this. I also need to show how people can access hearing instruments and audiological assessment.”
Natural athlete
Though born in Louisiana, USA, Regina grew up in the cool climate of Clarendon from which her mother originated before moving to the island’s capital. The middle child and only girl, Regina admits to being a tomboy in her early years and often competed against her brother, Simeon, 18 and Daniel, 14in sports.
A Taurus by birth (April 28, 1984), she jokingly admits that when she was a child, her “bull-headedness used to get her into trouble, “but I guess that’s how we have to learn sometimes.”
Regina attended Hopefield and Queen’s Prep schools between 1989-1994; then St. Andrew High School between 1994-1997, after which she journeyed to the USA for a future year of schooling. She returned to Jamaica in 1999 and attended Hillel, where she was enrolled in a programme that enabled her to take college courses from the University of Nebraska.
A natural athlete, she was captain of both the swimming and basketball teams at her alma mater as well as the sportswoman of the year for two consecutive years in 2000 and 2001. She still enjoys playing tennis and football, so getting in shape for the pageant was never a problem.
Unattached at the moment, relaxation for Regina involves reading or listening to some good soul and rhythm and blues music. She is also a lover of green bananas, yellow yam and ackee and salt fish.
A ‘great year’
She took her last walk as ‘Miss Jamaica World’ at the pageant finals for the 2002 competition on Saturday, August 31, to the background of a video montage of her activities over the year and voiceover from the lady herself.
The Sunday Gleaner asked what was going through her mind during those final moments.
“I was feeling as if I had just won. Is it really over? Just like when I won, I was asking did I really win? Let me enjoy my final minutes. Let’s just hope people were satisfied and are feeling as successful as I have felt,” she smiled.
Regina has just finished a year she describes as “fun, busy, entertaining – just great.”
“The year was fast. I gained a lot of exposure and opportunities to travel. I’ve been to the Caribbean islands for fashion shows and traveled around Jamaica,” she said.
About the international level of pageant, she says: “It’s amazing. At first I was a little nervous and confused. I didn’t know what was expected of me, then I stopped focusing on the contest and started meeting people.
“I met my close friend, Miss Barbados Stephanie Cross, and I got to try Miss Bangladesh’s little outfit. I really had fun in Zambia and Zimbabwe. I saw monkeys, elephants, Victoria Falls with a huge permanent rainbow between two rocks – it was wonderful,” she says, her voice tinged with awe as she reminisces.
In addition to the glamorous side of her reign, she was also involved in numerous charity efforts, such as with the St. Patrick’s Foundation, which will be opening a library near Riverton City is running a book drive.
Regina also landed the female lead in a locally produced film, Goat Head
“It stars Mark Danvers and Leonie Forbes. I play the lead actress, ‘Stella’. It’s a romantic comedy about the struggle of growing up. I live with my grandmother and aunt, my mother is in New York and like the neighbourhood bad boy, Randy – he’s a goat thief (laughing).”
There is a restless energy about Regina, as her upper body shift lightning fast, arms animated, throughout the interview.
She turned 18 in April of this year and is still enjoying the flush of youth.
If things go according to plan, come next January the Louisiana born queen will study psychology at the University of Central Florida.
Unless she changes her mind that is.
“I’m at a crossroad stage. What do I really want to do with my life? Do I really want to do psychology? That’s what’s on my mind at the moment. I enjoy it, but I’m not sure what I really want to do,” she says.
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