LIHU‘E — It’s a good thing Angela Perez Baraquio didn’t listen to all the people who said she was too fat, too short, too Asian, to have a chance to become Miss America. Baraquio, the 2001 Miss Hawaii and Miss
LIHU‘E — It’s a good thing Angela Perez Baraquio didn’t listen to all the people who said she was too fat, too short, too Asian, to have a chance to become Miss America.
Baraquio, the 2001 Miss Hawaii and Miss America, has never let the naysayers get her down, preferring to surround herself with positive people.
“‘Can’t’ is a bad word,” she said while on Kaua‘i addressing Kauaians young and old last week.
“You keep saying you can’t, you won’t,” she said.
Addressing over 300 senior citizens at a First Hawaiian Bank Primetime program appreciation gathering at the Kauai Veterans Center, or addressing the Kapaa High School Class of 2004, her messages are a it different, but equally upbeat.
“These are the best times of your life,” she told the senior citizens. “Life a happy life by giving more than you take every day.”
To the Kapaa High youngsters, she demanded they never sell themselves short, and talked about the importance of dreams and setting goals.
“If you dream big, if you believe in yourself, take baby steps, you can achieve anything,” she said. “If your mind can conceive it, and you can visualize it, you can make it happen.
“You have the power of choice,” but have to have an action plan, said Baraquio, who is pursuing her master’s degree in educational administration at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
“Surround yourself with positive people.”
Even without knowing that Baraquio was Miss America in 2001, those hearing her story already understand it is uncommon. The eighth of 10 children of parents who immigrated from the Philippines, she and all of her siblings were put through Catholic grade school and college by their hard-working parents, who understood the power of education for life improvement, she said.
And even as a student teacher, Baraquio recalled feeling that someone had something much bigger in store for her. “My name means ‘messenger,'” and she felt she had larger messages to share with the world outside the classroom, she said.
The same time she was a student teacher, students attacked and killed several schoolmates and teachers at Columbine High School in Colorado.
That event had a profound impact on her, especially after she found out the perpetrators were straight-A students.
That impressed upon her the importance of educating students in morals as well as academics, she said.
At age 26 and coming off her Miss America year when she traveled around 20,000 miles a month, Baraquio, no longer a miss, continues to live her life by making decisions good for her and others, she said.
She was recently married in a small ceremony on O‘ahu, but continues making select appearances and speeches, and is continuing her Miss America theme of “Character in the Classroom: Teaching Values, Valuing Teachers.”
Her nonprofit charitable foundation exists to recognize and honor outstanding teachers, including, at an event on O‘ahu planned before year’s end, one of her Catholic-school teachers who inspired Baraquio to become a teacher.
Baraquio met Pres. George Bush on two occasions, and has also met Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
