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By Ameara Ditsche Feb 15, 2024
Morgan Romano, a Johnstown graduate, Miss USA 2022, takes a selfie with a group of math and science students inside the Johnstown High School Media Center, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2024. She was invited to talk about opportunities in the STEM field at her alma mater.
JOHNSTOWN — Morgan Romano didn’t get lucky. Her Miss USA crown wasn’t earned on smiles and waves alone. It was diligence and tenacity which earned the title that juxtaposes her career in STEM.
“I don’t think I won because I’m the best ever,” she said. “The hardest worker just always comes out on top.”
Romano, a 2016 Johnstown High School graduate, stopped by her alma mater on Thursday to speak to current students about the balancing act of being a pageant queen and engineer. She emphasized the importance of STEM education and using available resources to find the best path. On Friday, she’ll do the same at Canajoharie High School.
The chemical engineer was crowned Miss USA in 2022 after winning Miss North Carolina that same year. After netting second place in the national competition, she ascended to the Miss USA title when the first place entrant won the Miss Universe pageant.
Morgan Romano, a Johnstown graduate, Miss USA 2022, talks to math and science students inside the Johnstown High School Media Center, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2024. She was invited to talk about opportunities in the STEM field at her alma mater. Stan Hudy
Winning a state-level title is a prerequisite for participating in Miss USA. With her eyes on the top prize, Romano competed seven times across two states for the chance to take the national stage. Beginning in 2016, she entered the Miss South Carolina pageant a number of times before relocating to North Carolina in 2020 and joining the pageant scene there.
The pageant circuit in southern states was a far cry from her years in Miss Teen Fulton County competitions and Romano was immediately met with culture shock, the same type of experience that led her back to pageantry in the first place.
When Romano arrived at the University of South Carolina to study chemical engineering in 2016, she struggled to find a place in the male-dominated academic space. It had been about four years since she competed in a pageant, but she knew there was no better place to meet other like-minded young women.
“Southern girls, they are born and raised for this. Like, they’re the girls you see on 'Toddlers and Tiaras,'” she said, with a laugh. “It's a whole other world.”
Romano stood out. She was a New Yorker and an engineer against a crowd of Southern belles put through the beauty-contest paces from childhood. Yet, she quickly found friends ready to take her in and show her the ropes.
Morgan Romano, a Johnstown graduate, Miss USA 2022, looks at a video on the phone of high school classmate Jack Fitzgerald, a science teacher at Johnstown High School, center, and former math teacher Melissa Miles, inside the Johnstown High School Media Center, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2024. Romano was invited to talk about opportunities in the STEM field at her alma mater. Stan Hudy
“I was like ‘Okay, you need to catch me up to speed,’ and they did and it was great,” she said.
Since then, Romano has been working on doing the same for others. Using her experience with pageants as a hook, she promotes STEM education.
After winning her title in North Carolina, she got involved with Project Scientist, a nonprofit that encourages STEM education by sending boxes of materials to children, allowing them to take part in scientific activities from a young age and bolstering the likelihood of them pursuing a career in STEM.
“The statistics show that really, if kids don't get into it by age six, then they probably won’t ever. I kind of beat the statistic, I didn’t have any of that,” Romano said.
Now, she has the chance to alter those odds, and encourage a new generation of girls to resist the dichotomy women often find themselves forced into.
“A girl earlier came up to me to say this was so great and she wants to go into forensic science,” Romano said. “If I can help one person, my heart will be happy.”
Growing up between pageants and science, Romano is no stranger to being told what she can’t do. Even more familiar to her is proving the naysayers wrong.
During her collegiate years, Romano relied on her tried-and-true method of hard work. When she struggled with the dense, difficult information inherent to engineering courses, she didn’t give up, she went to office hours. When a professor asked her, “Are you really going to be an engineer?” She didn’t give up.
She really became an engineer.
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