After winning the Miss Northern Illinois beauty pageant last week, Jenny Powers is a step closer to fulfilling a childhood dream she never had: being crowned Miss America.

With no previous pageantry experience and only two weeks of preparation, Powers prevailed over more experienced women at the regional competition April 9.

“I never ever thought I’d win,” she said. “I was just having fun on stage — I didn’t have any training. The other girls all knew one another, and I kind of kept to myself all day.

“They were probably thinking, ‘Who is this girl that came in here and stole the crown?'”

Powers won $500 as well as a $1,500 scholarship and a chance to continue on to the state pageant. If crowned Miss Illinois in June, she can compete in the Miss America Pageant.

Powers, a Music sophomore majoring in voice performance, trumpeted a platform of “arts in education” on her application and during the interview portion of the competition.

“(My platform) is something I truly believe in and something I have lived,” she said. “My ultimate goal is not that every child becomes an artist. I believe that arts, like nothing else in life, strengthen the heart and feed the soul.”

Along with the interview, the pageant comprised talent, swimsuit and evening gown competitions. Powers won the talent and swimsuit portions of the pageant.

For her talent, she performed one of her favorite songs, “Time Heals Everything,” from the Broadway musical “Mac and Mabel.” She modeled a swimsuit she and her mom, who flew in from Boston for the weekend, picked out at Old Orchard Shopping Center the day before the competition. And her evening gown was the same ivory taffeta dress she wore to her senior prom in high school.

The judges’ formula for selecting winners places less emphasis on the swimsuit and evening wear competitions, she said.

“Pageantry, especially in Illinois, is more about your platform and talent than what you look like,” she said.

Powers credited her inexperience for her triumph over more experienced competitors.

“(Other competitors) seemed very rehearsed on stage, and I didn’t feel they were speaking from the heart,” she said. “I came off as both real and fresh.”

Concerns about stereotypes of beauty pageants and her busy schedule nearly kept her out of the competition, she said. But Kate Shindle — Miss America 1998 and an NU graduate — and pageant organizers finally convinced her to give it a try two weeks before the event.

“Kate called me in the fall, and I basically said no,” Powers said. “I love to eat. I never wanted to get in a regimen of losing weight and constantly worrying about my appearance.”

NU’s Jade Smalls was first runner-up for the 2000 title Fall Quarter.

But once her concerns about pageantry were put to rest, she dedicated herself to preparing her platform for the competition.

“I don’t like to do anything half-assed,” she said.

With 10 weeks to prepare for the Miss Illinois pageant, Powers is going to savor the experience and not get caught up in winning.

“I never thought pageantry would be worthwhile,” she said. “It made me step back and evaluate who I am and what I stand for.”