In a way, the Miss Wisconsin America pageant held in Oshkosh, Wis. June 30 was a run up for Michelyn Butler, a UW-Madison doctoral student in Educational Psychology, who had competed as Miss Fox Valley. Butler had put everything she had into the competition. In the end, she fell just short of her goal when she was named first runner-up to Christina Thompson, who had competed as Miss Madison. While some may have packed it in and been discouraged, Butler kept right on going. Right after the awards ceremony, her director, Joel Ingerman, asked her 'You're doing USA, right?' Butler shrugged it off, but the encouragement kept coming. "My dance teacher who lives in Tampa, Florida and all my family and friends said 'This is all preparation,'" Butler said in an interview with The Capital City Hues. '"It made you stronger. I realize that if I didn';t do what I wanted to do, I wasn't going to die and I was going to do something else and succeed no matter what." Although she was sitting on the fence as she decided what to do, the encouragement kept pouring in. "I had many other people call me and e-mail telling me I had to do Miss Wisconsin USA," Butler said. "'You are meant to be on the national stage. You are meant to be on the national level. You are meant to do what you want to do with your platform.' It took me a little while to decide. I turned in my application the week that it was due. I made a last minute decision. I thought 'What the heck.' I try to live life with no regrets. I felt that I wasn't getting any younger. I just turned 25 years old. I'm still young for some things, but for the pageants, I'm not getting any younger. It's like a professional sport. The older you get the worst it is for you." Butler didn't expect to win the Miss Wisconsin USA title when the competition was held in Madison September 23 at the Madison Mariott Hotel. But her dream came true. "As shocked as I look on the photos is actually how shocked I really was," Butler said. "I had prepared so much for Miss Wisconsin America, I had put so much energy and strength into it and the cards fell the way they did. Now I realize everything happens for a reason. So I am very appreciative for the whole experience." While Butler was the perfect picture of poise and self-confidence as she competed, Butler insists that wasn't always the case. "No one will ever believe me but when I was a child, I used to hide in between my mom's skirts," Butler said. "I wouldn't talk to people. I was very reserved and shy. I'm sure I'm not like that any more. Put me on stage and I love it." Butler was born in Madison 25 years ago when her father, Mike Butler, played for the Green Bay Packers. However, Butler spent most of her youth growing up in the Tampa, Florida area. It was there that she put together the foundation for being a competitor for the rest of her life. Butler has taken dance lessons since she was young. By 16 years old, she was teaching dance. And she began to notice some things about the students whom she was teaching. "I realized the kids didn't have a lot of proper etiquette and social skills," Butler recalled. "I was the dance teacher and I was teaching these kinds of skills to these children." This concern for the younger ones coming up has guided Butler in many of her career choices. Butler also learned discipline and the need to make the hard choices. "When you're younger -- in preadolescence and adolescence -- sometimes your friends don't understand that you have a bigger goal in life," Butler reflected. "I was constantly involved in JV cheerleading, varsity cheerleading, I was in all kinds of organizations. Sometimes I couldn't do things with my friends. Now I know they respect me for that. Sometimes my friends would give me a little flak. "Why can't you come over here? Why can't you do this?" Well I had school work and all of these responsibilities. Sometimes it wasn't very much fun. There were times when I complained that I wasn't good at all of these things. Now I'm happy that my parents said 'Oh you said you were going to do this, so you are doing it." After she graduated from high school, Butler attended the University of Florida at Gainesville and earned a degree in Psychology in December 2005. Butler decided she wanted to get a Master's Degree and wanted to have the experience away from home and Florida. Yet she didn't want to be completely on her own, so she decided to attend graduate school in one of the three places where family and friends resided: Kansas, Washington, D.C. or Madison. Butler applied to the UW-Madison's educational psychology program and was invited up for an interview. "I applied for a master's program," Butler said. "They invite 20 people for an interview. I sat down and they told me they didn't have a Master';s program, only a doctorate program. I was sitting there thinking --These people have lost their minds. Okay. I was trying to keep my composure during the interview while I was thinking 'Why did they have me come up here when I wanted a master's program.' They told me they had gone over my file and they thought I would be a great fit here. I kept thinking they were crazy. I left thinking there was no way I am going into a doctorate program. It wasn't going to happen. Well, I'm here two years later and I've been doing well." While some may think that doctoral student and beauty pageant queen don't go together, Butler has a different opinion. "I don't feel that just because I';m in the doctoral program that I should have to follow some particular mold, that all doctoral students do XYZ," Butler emphasized. "I like to break the mold. I am going to be an individual and do what I want to do. In that way, I will try to have it all." Butler has not relied upon her beauty to get her where she wants to go. And while with some, it may open up doors, beauty can just as well close off opportunities. "I think beauty can be a hindrance sometimes," Butler said. "I think people assume that I am not intelligent. Or they assume that I've gotten where I am because of my beauty. I've had to work hard. I feel I've had to work hard to get good grades. I'm very cognizant that people are probably thinking 'She's probably not that intelligent,' or whatever stereotype they have. So I am always aware of that and trying to break that. So when I have a presentation, I make sure that I am there and I know everything I can so that I am always prepared. And really, everyone should do the same thing." As Butler fulfills her duties and responsibilities as Miss Wisconsin USA and prepares for the Miss USA pageant next spring, she will also use her title to send a message to youth that they need to get a solid education no matter what they want to be in life. "I think a lot of times, kids think 'I want to be a singer or I want to be an athlete or I want to be Miss Wisconsin,'" Butler reflected. But they don't also think 'I need to get an education.' I am advocate for extracurricular activities. I was involved in all kinds of extracurricular activities. However it is also important to stress education and that you need to succeed in that realm too because if you can't read your contract, you'e going to be in trouble. If you don't know how to balance your checkbook and you have people asking for money left and right and you don't know how to handle that, there are going to be problems." And she also plans to use her reign as a vehicle to help the efforts of organizations that work with children. She has already made contacts with the Boys & Girls Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters. And she will be making an appearance at the Ebony Fashion Show next month. "I want the readers to know that I am open to any community service activities that are involved with children or other venues where they want someone to speak or be a spokesperson for," Butler said. "That's my main goal. I'm a student athlete mentor. I enjoy that because I want to stress that you can be the best student athlete, but you need to remember the student in athlete. You need to do both roles. You can be a great athlete or singer and you can also do as well as you can in education. It doesn't have to be one or the other. You have to have a balance." Butler may have to be doing a balancing act of her own over the next few years. If she wins the Miss USA title next spring, she will relocate to New York as she fulfills the obligations of Miss USA and then go on to compete for Miss Universe. It could be two years before Butler can get back to her degree full time. "I hope I will have graduated in 10 years," Butler said with a smile. "I'll have a doctorate degree. I have in mind the duties of the job that I want to do. But where that is going to be, I do not know." While she gets turned off by the raucous debates of politics, Butler does envision herself in the public policy debate. "I don't necessarily see myself in a public school," Butler said. "I see myself working as a consultant for some private organization that does consulting work with different school districts. I say I'm not going to get into politics, but I don't know. I don't want to say never because I might on some level." If Butler does get involved in politics, let the other politicians beware. Behind that disarming smile is a real competitor and she knows how to win. If your organization is interested in having Michelyn Butler make an appearance in her role as Miss Wisconsin USA, e-mail her at misswisconsinusa2008@futureproductions.net. |
| Miss Wisconsin USA 2008 Michelyn Butler An intelligent beauty by Jonathan Gramling |
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| (Left) Michelyn Butler on the UW-Madison campus; (Right): Michelyn Butler is overcome with happiness after being crowned Miss Wisconsin USA |