Beautiful at Mason: Current Miss Virginia, Mason Grad, to Appear at Event
Broadside Staff Writer Gabriella Leone

Adrianna Sgarlata has come a long way from being a shy girl on the Mason campus to an outgoing woman who is trying to make the world a better place. She has only been doing pageants for three years and yet holds many titles, the most prominent of which is Miss Virginia 2006.

Sgarlata is a Mason graduate and is returning Feb. 17 to sing at the homecoming basketball game.

She is also returning to Mason in the fall to earn a Masters of Music in voice.

“Mason is full of diversity,” Sgarlata said. “There are so many different cultures that show how we can all work together to be a better world.”

And that is what she is going to do at Mason. Sgarlata hopes to work with the music department to start a music scholarship program.

Many of the girls star in pageants for fame, but Sgarlata started doing pageants to earn scholarship money. She has won $29,000, which has all been put back into Mason for her education.

She picked Mason because of the music program, the endless possibility of job placements and because she really believes it is an amazing university.

She lived on campus for five years and added that her bachelor’s took a little longer than usual.

“Showing up at Mason and making friends is so easy to do; I always had a great time,” Sgarlata said. “I never felt unhappy, I always loved GMU.”

She also said that she was grateful that Mason had placed a congratulations ad in the Miss America Magazine.

Upon being crowned Miss Virginia 2006 on June 30, Sgarlata has been busy. Her platform of service is Behaving Respectfully and Valuing Others, which instills the safety of youngsters and protecting them from all kinds of bullies. She has gone to many schools to promote her platform and stop bullying. As the executive director of the Virginia Chapter of Bully Police USA and Miss Virginia 2007, she was able to bring two anti-bullying bills to the Legislatures of Virginia and have them passed.

 “Mason is such an awesome school,” Sgarlata said. “I’m excited to get back.”

She hopes to travel abroad in the summer and has set her sights on Italy. Sgarlata is interested in opera and hopes to audition and get her foot in the door of the music business. Though she does not speak Italian fluently, she hopes to learn, and was in the first Italian class offered at Mason.

Along with being Miss Virginia and being a talented singer, Sgarlata has also modeled and acted. She had a role as an extra in 2002’s “Minority Report” starring Tom Cruise and has modeled for many designers, including Jessica McClintock. Although she models and acts, her first love remains singing.

To those who hope to become models and actors her advice is, “Remember what [your] core values are when [you] were brought up by your parents, because once it’s out there, everyone will see it”.

Sgarlata is not the only Mason woman to go on to compete in Miss Virginia. In the past five years she has been one of three. The other two are Jennifer Pitts and Kristi Glakas.