Crowning moment

While warming up for the talent portion of the 2008 Miss University of Alabama pageant on Dec. 8, Meri-Glenn Freeman sprained her left ankle, tearing all of the attached ligaments and tendons.

"She's a trooper," said pageant director Carol Wright. "Nobody really knew, and she kept on going and finished it. She didn't want any sympathy; she just wanted to keep on competing, and I appreciated that."

Not only did Freeman, a junior majoring in political science and public relations, finish the pageant and dance for the talent portion of the pageant, but when it ended she was standing with a crown on her head and tears in her eyes, clutching a bouquet of roses and a plaque that declared her the 2008 Miss University of Alabama.

Growing up in Vestavia Hills, Freeman's parents took her to the Miss Alabama pageant every year, and she said she remembers dreaming of becoming Miss America.

The Miss University of Alabama program is a preliminary of the Miss Alabama pageant, which takes place in June. If Freeman wins Miss Alabama, the next step in the process, she will compete in the Miss America pageant.

"I think she'll be very competitive. She wants to be a strong contender," Wright said.

"I'm a person who works really hard and holds high expectations for herself," Freeman said. "And this is something I've always wanted to do."

Freeman said her hard work extends beyond the pageant stage. Her platform, Target Tutoring, is a program she helped create as a freshman as an extension of an honors mentoring class.

"It's been the most important thing I do on campus," Freeman said.

Target Tutoring is an after-school program that operates in five schools across Tuscaloosa County. College and high school tutors and mentors are paired with at-risk elementary and middle school students.

"It's rewarding and amazing to see them excel," she said. "I've seen these children not only improve on behavior and emotionally, but their test scores have risen in every subject, not just math, which we focus on."

Freeman said she is motivated to continue with the program by more than the progress the students are making.

"I have fallen in love with them and called them my own children," she said.

Freeman hopes to continue her work with children as an education pubic policy attorney after she graduates from the University.

"I want to spend two or three years in Teach for America before I go to law school, so that I can look at education from both sides," she said.

Freeman said she wants to work in the state of Alabama.

"There's lots of room for improvement," she said.

Freeman said she plans to tackle issues such as a lack of equality in education and poor funding for at-risk schools in her future work.

Wright said she doesn't doubt that Freeman will achieve her goals.

"She's very focused on her academic career and her future career goals," she said.

For now, however, Freeman said she is content to continue her studies at the University and her service to several different clubs.

She is a member of the University Honors Program, an honors mentoring student intern, vice president of Chi Omega sorority, vice president of the Coordinating Council of Honors Societies, a member of the Blackburn Institute and deputy director of communication for the SGA.

"Hard work is something my parents instilled in me at a very young age," Freeman said.

A penchant for overextending herself isn't all Freeman said she inherited from her parents; all of her immediate family members have attended or will attend the Capstone.

"I was born and raised on Alabama football," she said. "The University of Alabama is a family tradition."

Freeman said she has great faith in Alabama football head coach Nick Saban's football team and sees this year's season as a metaphor for life.

"Of course I would have loved to see a national championship, but, as it is in life, you have to build a foundation first," she said. "I think that Saban will be worth every pretty penny we're paying him."

Outside of her rigorous schedule of classes and extra-curricular activities, Freeman said she is the average college student and always makes time for herself.

She said she "absolutely loves" her life at the University, and that she feels privileged to represent it.

Freeman said even if she doesn't win Miss Alabama, she will fulfill her duties as Miss University of Alabama happily, and that she would love to be in a position to show the importance of education, whether she's working as Miss America or Miss University of Alabama.

Freeman will be preparing for the Miss Alabama pageant until June, where she will compete against 2007 Miss University of Alabama Stephanie Shelton and others.

"I don't look at her as a rival," Freeman said. "A victory for her is a victory for me."

Freeman said she will dance in the Miss Alabama pageant, hopefully without injury.

"It's much better," she said of her beleaguered ankle. "I'm starting dance practices."