Former Miss Black USA to speak at Texarkana College
TEXARKANA, Texas — Former Miss Black USA Ocielia Gibson-sprowl will serve as the guest speaker at a Texarkana College women’s history luncheon.
The TC alumnus is coming back to her roots. Gibson-sprowl won the crown in 2012.
“To have this opportunity to speak and give back to the current students there is incredible, and I am looking forward to it,” she said.
She will speak on a variety of topics such as her journey from Texarkana to becoming Miss Black USA, insights into personal and professional growth, the art of confidence and poise, and much more before ending with a question and answer session.
“My journey to becoming Miss Black USA started with my very first pageant, which was the Miss Texas High Pageant,” Gibson-sprowl said. “I entered because one of my really good friends encouraged me to enter.”
From there, she continued to enter pageant after pageant, earning higher titles. Those years of local wins would eventually send her to Washington, D.C., to win Miss Black USA.
“My objective with competing was to earn scholarship money for my degree,” she said. “I only competed in scholarship pageants. If there was a pageant and there was an opportunity to win scholarship money as the winner, I was there.”
One of many titles that Gibson-sprowl holds is Miss Texarkana 2007. She went on to compete in the Miss Texas pageant, where she was a top 10 semi-finalist. Her year as Miss Texarkana came with a $5,000 scholarship.
“That win served as a major blessing for me,” she said.
The luncheon is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Truman Arnold Student Center Great Room at Texarkana College, 2500 N. Robison Road. For more information or to RSVP, visit Texarkana College’s Facebook page and click on the upcoming events tab.