Algonquin student is runner-up at provincial pageant

Sophia Wojdak, a level 2 public relations student, was the second runner up at the 2024 Miss Ontario Regional Canada Pageant.

“I was the former Miss Teenage Edmonton, because I’m from Alberta, and the former Miss Northern Alberta as well,” said Wojdak. She has been doing pageants for four years now. This was her second time competing in the Miss Ontario Regional Canada Pageant.

Wojdak says that pageants are a lot different than most people think. “I think people have an idea that pageants are all just pretty dresses and baton twirling and it’s really not that,” she explained. “A lot of it is fundraising, public speaking preparation, panel interview preparation, and each delegate has to have a personal charitable platform.”

For this pageant, Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer was the primary charity of the organization. “But everybody has to have a personal philanthropic platform,” Wojdak explained, “so mine was Consent on Campus, which was promoting sexual assault survivor resources and consent education on university campuses.” She says that doing research for the platform, fundraising for the organization, preparing for the interview and speeches are the big parts of preparation for the competition.

“Sophia used her pageant platform to raise awareness, understanding and money for issues and causes that are important to her,” said Bradley Moseley-Williams, coordinator of the public relations program. “I also found her interest and concern to be genuine, and she was effective at making presentations about these issues. She spoke in class, at pageants and leveraged the value of various social media channels to get the word out.”

“My favourite part is just meeting all the other women that compete,” said Wojdak. “I’ve made a lot of really good friends through pageants. You make a lot of good connections, not just personally, but also professionally.”

Hailey McDonald, Miss Prince Edward County, met Wojdak in person for the first time at Miss Ontario, Regional Canada 2023 Pageant in May 2023. “Sophia is the sweetest during pageant week,” said McDonald. “She’s extremely bubbly and energetic no matter how busy we are, and she always keeps the mood fun and light-hearted. I’m pretty sure she was the one cheering the loudest for me when I placed in the top six.”

Jewel Lindemann, Miss Cambridge, said the same thing. “When I won a side award for the competition, Sophia was cheering the loudest and you could tell that she was genuinely so happy for me.”

Wojdak says that she didn’t have to deal with anything negative while competing in the pageants, other than just dealing with the misconceptions and stereotypes on what the paginate actually is.

“When I tell people I do pageants, most people are positive about it and think like, that’s cool or whatever. But some people think that, it’s like objectifying or it doesn’t really have to do with people’s community work or their intelligence,” Wojdak said. “There’s a whole scholastic exam that’s a big part of this pageant, and, like, I won the scholastic award so I was very proud of myself. But it sucks sometimes when you tell people like, oh I do pageants and they think, ‘oh it’s just about being pretty’, ‘it’s just about wearing a dress’, it’s whatever.”

Wojdak knows that the pageants are a lot of work and is not sure if she will do them in the future.

“I hope to get a job in PR going out of school and I just don’t know if I’ll have time for it.” Wojdak said. “But if I don’t have time to compete again, I would still love to go and watch pageants and volunteer at them and help. I’ve been able to help with some kids pageants in the community and I always really like doing that.”

To women competing in pageants, Wojdak has this advice: “Even if you walk away and you don’t win or you don’t have the experience you want, just remember that you still do take lessons away from that experience and you still get to make great friends and you still, you know, get to have that experience.”

She says that she started pageantry because she wanted to grow.

“I have to kind of ignore what naysayers said about what pageantry was, [who] thought that I was dumb for wanting to do it. Pursue the things you want to do to help your community, and help yourself, and then make you happy. And don’t care too much about what other people have to say about it.”