HOWELL – Jade Glab, Miss New Jersey 2019 returned to Howell High School when the high school played host to the Miss Central Jersey competition. She represented the Garden State in the 2020 Miss America Competition last week which was televised on NBC.
Glab sang the National Anthem during the 7th Annual Howell Township/Farmingdale 5K Run and Race Walk held on the high school’s athletic field in August. The 19-year-old from Belmar was crowned Miss New Jersey 2019 last year inside the Superstar Theater at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.
The Miss Central Jersey organization held its second annual Miss Central Jersey, Miss Central Jersey Coastline and Miss Seaside Counties event which is a preliminary to Miss Jersey and Miss America competition. The event also marked the first Miss Central Jersey Outstanding Teen competition on Nov. 16.
Glab served as the master of ceremonies during the program. The Howell High School Dance Team performed during the event and members of the Howell Middle School Cheer team assisted by selling raffle tickets and helping as needed.
Howell resident Peter Bruno, who serves as executive director of the Miss Central Jersey competition said that to qualify each candidate had to have talent and be involved with some form of community service. He added that he and Darlene Corrubia, executive director of Miss Central Jersey Coastline and a former Miss Monmouth County winner, have been involved with the competitions for 20 years.
Corrubia, Brick, said, “it was very successful. Our first Central Jersey Outstanding Teen Pageant was coordinated by Terri Leonardis of Howell. This was her first year as teen director for Miss Central Jersey Teen and Angelique Cauterucci of East Brunswick won.”
“We crowned three Miss candidates from an eight-county region who advance to The Miss New Jersey/Miss America preliminary. The winners were Ariel Staffin of Bridgewater who was crowned Miss Central Jersey, Thushara Korratyil of Plainsboro who won the title of Miss Seaside Counties and Krystle Tomlinson of Scotch Plains who won Miss Central Jersey Coastline,” Corrubia said.
“Trisha Smith of Asbury Park and Gianna Sulfaro of Howell were both runners’ up. They were both vocalists,” Corrubia said.
“The Miss America Program differs very much from the Miss USA program,” Corrubia said. “People often get it mixed up. The Miss USA Pageant has a scoring system heavy weighted on outward appearance. Our program, The Miss America Program, started out as a beauty pageant and has evolved to be more of a Scholarship competition to help offset the burden of education for women.
“Up until last year, the swimsuit category was part of the Miss America competition but has since been removed. Swimsuit was there as more of a tradition in the later years. The swimsuit score was a very small part of the scoring. The majority of the scoring for Miss America is weighted in talent (40%), private interview (25%), on stage question (15%) and social impact statement/evening wear (20%).
“The latter tests the woman’s ability to deliver her community service or social cause at a microphone dressed in a dressy outfit of her choice, usually evening wear. Since this is going to be a big part of her year as a title holder, this part of the competition tests her ability to deliver and be make a social impact. The interview and onstage question are delivered by the candidate in business attire,” Corrubia said.
“Verbiage for the Miss America system has changed as well: It is no longer a ‘pageant’ it is called a ‘competition.’ We no longer use the word ‘contestant,’ we use ‘candidate.’ These are ‘women’ not ‘girls,’” she said.
Winning the Miss Monmouth County title led to her long friendship with Bruno of Howell and their working together for 20 years. “We started out in the late 1970s together. He was my local director for Miss Monmouth County which I won in 1979. I was 18 when I won. It prepared me greatly for the world. I learned out to speak in front of people, how to interview for a job. How to present myself in a professional manner. It also taught me how to work hard to achieve.”
Corrubia added, that “it helped to pay part of my tuition to Rutgers as well. The volunteers who make up the Miss America system at the local and state level give an enormous amount of time because it is all volunteer work. This is a not for profit scholarship program, the largest single source for scholarships for women in the U.S.
“Many years later Peter and I decided to run our own local pageant which we did for 10 years including Miss Monmouth County. I wanted to give back to a program that I believed in. We both took some time off and started back up last year to start the first Central Jersey Regional pageant,” Corrubia said. “Last year we sent Jade Glab of Belmar and Kyra Seely of Middlesex to the State competition. Jade won the Miss New Jersey competition and is going to be competing for Miss America and Kyra was second runner up at Miss New Jersey,” Corrubia said.
