(gentle music) - One night, group of us were sitting around in my dorm room watching the television, and Miss America was on that night.

One of my friends turned to me and said, "Hey, you should do this."

And I said, "No, I'm a scientist.

I'm a serious scientist.

I am not going to do this."

So several days later, I had found out these folks had actually signed me up to participate in one of the local area pageants.

I continued to say no, I wasn't going to do it.

And they continued to make fun of me.

So I decided if I didn't do this, that they'd never let it go.

I would just do it once and try it and then be done with it.

And we'd all move on.

So I did it.

Didn't win.

I realized that I wasn't good at these different areas of competition, and that they were important in life.

So I signed up to do it a second time, changed my wardrobe.

I needed to figure out what to do with my hair.

This was not a factor in science fair.

You just put it up in a ponytail, and you're done.

Got a different swimsuit.

I have put the effort into all these different areas, and I ended up winning.

And as a result, that qualified me to be in the Miss Massachusetts Pageant.

And at that point, everything changed.

(audience cheering) It never occurred to me in a million years that I would win.

I was the first person from MIT who had ever done that.

And to this day, it's very controversial.

People react strongly.

Some will say, "Wow, that's so great.

That's so interesting."

And then there were those who said, "Why are you doing this?

This is such a waste of time."

And I said, you couldn't be more wrong.

I like to compete.

I think that competition actually encourages you to improve.

I think it makes you try harder.

To me, it was very important.

It helped me to become a more well-rounded person.

It was really a way to improve.