Asian Wisconzine-November 2005

Malaysian American represents Wisconsin at national pageant and is lauded as another Asian American titleholder of this state
by Robin Hansen
      During the national live telecast of the 2005 Miss Teen-USA pageant which was aired on NBC in August, Wisconsin residents were able to catch a glimpse of an accomplished Asian-American woman in the contest. Stevens Point's own, Anisa Yanti Phillips, 18, represented Wisconsin in the 23rd annual Miss Teen-USA pageant held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Phillips, who is of Malaysian descent, is the second Asian American to represent Wisconsin at the national teen pageant.
      In 1985, Maria Kim of Shorewood, who is Korean American, represented the Badger state. She didn't place at the national pageant; however, that year Chinese-Hawaiian-American Kelly Ann Hu of Hawaii won the 1985 Miss Teen-USA title. Hu has since been a successful actress most notably the co-star in the movie The Scorpion King. She also played "Grace" on CBS's television hit Martial Law.
      During the 2005 Miss Teen-USA pageant telecast, Phillips was featured twice during two parade of states segments including one which was pre-taped at various locations in the city.
      Other Asian-American delegates competing for the title of Miss Teen-USA 2005 were Miss Hawaii, Melissa Marie Benz, 18, of Kanoehe; and Miss Montana, Kendall Joy Powell, 17, of Missoula. Powell, who was born in Korea, was adopted in September of 1988 at four months old and is the first minority woman to win the Miss Montana Teen-USA title.
      While Phillips didn't place among the top 15 semifinalists, she represented the Badger state well. She attempted to become Wisconsin's second national Miss Teen-USA winner. In 2002, Vanessa Marie Semrow of Rhinelander won the national crown.
      After she arrived in Louisiana's capital city on July 22, Phillips had been busy with charity events, rehearsals, and

Anisa Yanti Phillips: Miss Wisconsin Teen USA

Stevens Point's Anisa Yanti Phillips, Miss Wisconsin Teen USA 2005, competes in an evening gown of her choice during the 2005 Miss Teen USA Presentation Show at the Baton Rouge River Center in Baton Rouge, LA on August 3, 2005.

meeting the public. Prior to the Aug. 8 live national telecast on NBC, Phillips participated in the Aug. 3 preliminary competition, where she and the 50 other contestants modeled swimsuits and evening gowns. Earlier in the day, the pageant delegates met with the judges for a personal interview.
      Phillips is a recent graduate of Stevens Point Area Senior High School where she served as class president during her junior and senior years. The honors student also was active in singing, dance, volleyball, track, dance, Key Club, and ceramics.
      Phillips also has a long history of volunteer work that stretches from local charities to Africa. Last summer, Phillips spent six weeks at an HIV/AIDS-stricken orphanage in Kenya. She also volunteered at the Nyumbani Children's Home and was a participant of the Stevens Point-based The Noel Group, whose organization raised funds and helped construct a facility for Nyumbani volunteers.
      Locally, in her native Portage County, Phillips volunteers at a local hospital and at in-take shelters for the disadvantaged. As a member of the W.A.I.T. (Wisconsin Abstinence Initiative for Teens) team, Phillips travels throughout north central Wisconsin giving presentations to junior high and high school students about teen pregnancy prevention, STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), and emotional trauma.
      Phillips, who won the 2005 Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA title on Oct. 31 in Lake Delton against 24 other statewide entrants, is the daughter of Dr. Victor D. and Dr. Mai Morshidi Phillips. Mr. Phillips, a Texas-born, St. Louis native, is the fourth dean of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's College of Natural Resources. Ms. Phillips, who was born and raised in Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, is an online course instructor for the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education and senior scientist at UW-Stevens Point. They have one other daughter, Chiara.
      As senior class president, Phillips was able to welcome her uncle, journalist Stone Phillips, the anchor of the award-winning newsmagazine Dateline NBC, to deliver the high school's keynote address during the 2005 commencement ceremony on May 29. However, when asked by pageant officials who most influenced her life, Phillips said it was her mother, Mai. "All my life I have been a "daddy's girl," but recently I began to grow closer to my mom," she said. Just before Thanksgiving last November, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her attitude and strength are remarkable, and I hope I can be half of the mom and the woman that she is."
      This fall, Phillips plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri to study interior design. "I would like to start a career as either a fashion designer in New York, or an interior designer in California," Phillips said.
      The Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA pageant was not Phillips' first brush with pageantry. In August 2003, she won the National American Miss Wisconsin Junior Teen title in Middleton, Wis., and then competed in the national pageant. Phillips continued to hold the Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA title until she crowned her successor at the 2006 Miss Wisconsin Teen-USA pageant held Oct. 15 in Richland Center.
      Wisconsin has had larger than average number of Asian American state-pageant winners competing at national pageants.
      Four women, all Korean-American, have held the title of Miss Wisconsin and competed in the annual Miss America pageant.
      Classical pianist Keungsuk Kim won the state title in 1981 and placed in the top 10 at the 1981 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, NJ. Six years later, her younger sister, Maria Kim, won the 1987 title. The younger Kim sister, also a classical pianist, won the preliminary and non-finalist talent awards with a Chopin classic "Fantasy Impromptu."
      In 1993, Tania Elizabeth Ziegler of Fond Du Lac was named Miss Wisconsin; she placed in the top 10 in the Miss America contest. The classical violinist used her pageant scholarships to graduate from the UW-Madison. The fourth and most recent Asian-American Miss Wisconsin was Green Bay's Tina Marie Sauerhammer who was Miss Wisconsin 2003. The talented cellist was selected second runner-up to Miss America 2004, the highest placement of a Wisconsin contestant at the Miss America pageant since 1973. Sauerhammer, whose widowed mother Oki, is Korean, is now a doctor at UW Hospital and clinics.
      Sauerhammer's father, Randall, died in January 2002, on his 45th birthday, while on the waiting list for a donated kidney. He had been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease when Sauerhammer was about 7 years old, and he spent the last four years of his life on the waiting list.
      Other Wisconsin Asian-American pageant notables include Chuti Lynn Tiu of West Allis, who was Wisconsin's Junior Miss 1987 and later chosen as America's Junior Miss. Her younger sister, Carmelita Anne Tiu, won the same state pageant honors in 1993. Both are Chinese Americans. And Yo Yo Park of Portage won this same state pageant in 1997 and placed in the top five at the national America's Junior Miss pageant in Mobile, Ala.
      Three Asian-American women have held the title of Miss Wisconsin-USA, a state preliminary to the Miss USA pageant.
      Elyzabeth Lee Pham, a Vietnamese-born California native, moved to Madison, Wis. and later was named Miss Wisconsin-USA 1999. She became the first ever Asian-American to win the Wisconsin title. At the Miss USA pageant, held in Branson, Mo., she was named Miss Photogenic, the first time a Wisconsin contestant has won that special award at the national pageant. A year later, Samantha Jo Picha (whose mother is a Filipina) of Verona became the second consecutive Asian American to hold the state title.
      In 2003, Judith Kim Eckerle, a Korean American born adoptee from Bloomington, Minn. won the Miss Wisconsin-USA title on her second attempt. She was a medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Eckerle, whose given name is Kyung Rim, was found abandoned one week after her birth in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Korea. She was adopted by an American couple from Minnesota in February 1977.
      While some women compete in pageants to gain scholarships, crowns, and prizes, Eckerle had other motives. Her desire to find her biological parents remained strong, and is one of the major reasons why Eckerle entered the pageant. Her minority status as pageant queen would give her additional publicity and media exposure, which would gain attention in her native Korea. "My dedication to winning Miss Wisconsin stemmed from the need for more publicity in Korea," Eckerle says. "I had already been on national television four times and in multiple newspapers over in Korea, and I knew [that] without something new and exciting like Miss Wisconsin-USA, there would be no other options for continuing my search."
      Other pageant notables include Neri Carine Licos, a Filipino American from Madison, who held the title of Miss Wisconsin Homecoming Queen in 2000; Anahita Dua of Brookfield, who is of Indian descent, represented Wisconsin in the national 2001 Miss India USA pageant and won the Miss Congeniality award.
      "I don't think it's because these Wisconsin women were Asian American why they won the state pageants. These women are very personable, talented, and well educated, making them very likely candidates to win and compete at the national level," said Liz Blum, a pageant historian who has followed pageants for years. "And almost all of these women later did well at the national level, so it speaks well of Wisconsin."
      Alexandra Leigh LaForce, 16, of Vermilion, Ohio was named Miss Teen-USA 2005 and was crowned by 2004 titlist Shelley Catherine Hennig, 18, of Destrehan, La. LaForce, who became the first ever Ohio woman to win the national teen title, will be a high school junior this fall. Her pageant roommate, Miss Michigan, Catherine Ann Laurion, 17, was named first runner-up to La Force.
      The 2005 Miss Teen-USA pageant was hosted by NBC Passions soap star Galen Gering and former Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo. Former 2003 American Idol finalist and Tennessee native Kimberly Dawn Locke entertained. LaForce, who will move to a New York City apartment and collect a prize package worth over $30,000, also won $5,000 scholarship. Her mother, Lesa Kay Rummell-LaForce, was Miss Ohio-USA 1977.
      "Anisa is a proven leader [and a] good role model and has been an excellent representative to teens and Wisconsin in general," said Blum. "The new state teen winner will have big shoes to fill."

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