NIU’s own Perrine Pham won first runner-up at a regional Miss Vietnam pageant on Sept. 20.

The pageant was open to the Midwestern region and was held at the University of Illinois-Chicago where it was hosted and sponsored by the Illinois Vietnamese Student Union (IVSU).

“I did not think I was going to be one of the seven finalists,” Pham said, a senior communicative disorders major. “I was very shocked and I am completely happy, totally happy, with everything I have achieved.”

Pham, while winning first runner-up along with Miss Photogenic, Miss Formal Wear and Miss Congeniality, was shocked because while being of Vietnamese descent, she does not appear to be Vietnamese.

She described her first day at the IVSU meeting for the pageant.

“First day I walked into the meeting, I heard whispers, of course, because every time I go into a Vietnamese community there’s always someone saying ‘Oh, who’s that white girl? Why’s she here?’,” Pham said.

Pham, a first-generation American, explained that she carries her mother’s more dominant French characteristics despite her father being Vietnamese and her mother Vietnamese-French.

Even though Pham grew up with Vietnamese culture and spoke the language, she felt she was still faced with an identity crisis.

“I asked myself, ‘If I did win, could I hold up the Vietnamese end? Will people accept me being interracial?'” Pham said. “And I found out that people will, but there are still some, especially among the older generation, that still have those outlooks of strict tradition.”

The NIU Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) attended the pageant to show Pham their support and welcomed the change in standards.

“I think it’s a good idea because it brings the Vietnamese and American cultures closer,” said Sonny Lee, a sophomore biology major and the VSA’s PR manager.

“I go to a lot of events with Vietnamese culture, and with beauty pageants a lot of it is starting to accept mixed culture and we try to convince the older generation that it’s OK to change and make it better,” said Catheryne Le, a senior marketing major and president of VSA.

Pham may not have been crowned Miss Vietnam, but she is proud that she proved to be an example of change without sacrificing culture or identity.

“[The VSA] is trying to show everyone that we can hold up all parts of our culture, our identity, our families, our tradition and it doesn’t necessarily have to be one or the other,” Pham said.