{"id":707,"date":"2015-01-15T15:12:45","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T20:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/?p=707"},"modified":"2015-01-15T15:12:45","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T20:12:45","slug":"marla-peiffer-senior-ot-student-wins-miss-york-county-pageant-and-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/2015\/01\/15\/marla-peiffer-senior-ot-student-wins-miss-york-county-pageant-and-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Marla Peiffer – Senior OT student wins “Miss York County” Pageant and Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marla<\/a>Marla Peiffer<\/strong> was recently crowned \u201cMiss York County\u201d \u2013 part of the Miss Pennsylvania and Miss America Organization.\u00a0 The \u201cMiss York County\u201d pageant is open to young women who live in York County or surrounding counties.\u00a0 Marla is from Quarryville, PA, in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n

Marla\u2019s involvement in scholarship pageants began as a senior in high school when she entered a school-based pageant and won the \u201cMiss Solanco\u201d scholarship.\u00a0 Since then she has entered multiple scholarship pageants, including competing in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant where she was a Top Ten finalist and placed third runner up in 2014.\u00a0 This most recent pageant resulted in a $4,000 scholarship, but Marla says other pageant awards have also helped with her college expenses.<\/p>\n

The scholarship competition includes a talent component.\u00a0 Marla\u2019s talent is tap dance, and in her most recent pageant win, she danced a routine to \u201cR.O.C.K in the USA\u201d by John Mellencamp.\u00a0 The competitions also include an interview with judges.\u00a0 Marla says these interviews can be very intense with questions ranging from issues of gun control to the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0 She says the interview portion forces her to think on her feet, clearly communicate her thoughts and opinions, and be prepared with knowledge and awareness of various current events and issues.<\/p>\n

\"Marla,<\/a>
Marla, Miss York County (center) with Miss White Rose City and Miss Susquehanna Valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contrary to stereotypes about beauty pageants, Marla reported that these competitions are really more about service and scholarship<\/strong>.\u00a0 Her fellow contestants are nice and sweet young women who are also very ambitious, with goals of professional careers in law, medicine, and yes \u2013 Occupational Therapy.\u00a0 Marla commented that the scholarship competition is a great way to promote awareness of and advocate for occupational therapy; invariably she has to explain to someone what OT is and what OTs do.<\/p>\n

In addition, scholarship competitions require contestants to have a platform or critical issue they want to promote.\u00a0 Marla\u2019s platform is \u201cInclusion Revolution \u2013 Best Buddies Moving Forward<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Best Buddies<\/a>\u00a0is an organization that promotes friendships and social integration for adults with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDD).\u00a0 Marla has been a member of the Etown College Best Buddies club since her freshman year, and is currently serving her second year as President<\/span> of the club.\u00a0 As part of her critical issue platform, she promotes inclusion of adults with IDD, the use of person-first language, and the removal of the \u201cr\u201d word (\u201cretard\u201d) from language about adults with IDD.\u00a0 Marla commented that being involved in a pageant competition is really about setting goals for yourself and striving to achieve the goal.\u00a0 She said, \u201cIt\u2019s neat to see the multiple challenges, even if you don\u2019t win.\u00a0 Each experience shapes you and changes you.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s next for Marla?\u00a0 She will compete in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant in June, in Pittsburgh PA.<\/strong>\u00a0 Of course, she still has to finish her senior year of college and earn her bachelor\u2019s degree in May.\u00a0 Her first level II fieldwork experience is also scheduled for this summer in Lancaster, and she has a year of graduate OT studies ahead of her next year.<\/p>\n

Best wishes, and good luck, Marla!\u00a0 Keep up the great work in and out of the classroom!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marla Peiffer was recently crowned \u201cMiss York County\u201d \u2013 part of the Miss Pennsylvania and Miss America Organization.\u00a0 The \u201cMiss York County\u201d pageant is open to young women who live in York County or surrounding counties.\u00a0 Marla is from Quarryville, …<\/p>\n

Marla Peiffer – Senior OT student wins “Miss York County” Pageant and Scholarship<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-accomplishments","category-student-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}