| To hear her mother tell it, Carrie Ann Mewha is "just a normal person, who dresses up well." Of course, her mother acknowledges that her 23-year-old middle child is also bright, hard-working, multitalented and good-hearted. And yes, yes, Carrie Ann Mewha is the new Miss Florida USA, crowned last month in a televised pageant at Broward Community College's Bailey Hall in Davie. Not bad for a former tomboy who used to clean out horse stalls to help support a hobby. Former? "Why are you assuming she left the tomboy behind," interjects Pam Mewha, of St. Petersburg, just in case you should think the coveted crown has gone to her daughter's head. "She can still get dirty." Leave it to a mom to set the record straight. One thing for sure, blond, blue-eyed Carrie Ann Mewha has always been more than what she was, or is. At 15, she won the first beauty pageant she ever entered. But she was also at the time an honor student who would become a National Merit Scholar, who in turn would be the first with that distinction to be chosen Homecoming Queen at the University of Florida. She graduated with honors from the Gainesville school, earning a degree in microbiology and cell science. She also received a biochemistry research distinction award and the school's Volunteer Award for her work with disabled children. Now, she's a second-year medical student at the University of Miami. And that, she makes clear, is really what she's about. "Medicine's my life," she says, relaxing in her Sunny Isles apartment just a couple of blocks from the surf and sand. "Everything else is what I do for fun." Ask something about molecular biology and she'll talk for an hour. Ask about beauty pageants, and she'll giggle, then, like a sister sharing a secret, she'll tell you how to keep a swimsuit from slipping around when you're crossing a stage in a spotlight and 4-inch heels. "It's not a natural thing," she says of the competitive strut. Despite her successes, this small-town girl with the mink and tiara (prizes from the Miss Florida USA competition) remains disarmingly unpretentious and totally engaging as she struggles to adjust to big city life. "I feel uncomfortable when I go someplace and don't know everyone. I'm used to walking into a restaurant and knowing the owner. People who move from small towns tend to create a small town around them," she says. Born in Dunedin, raised in St. Petersburg, part of a close-knit family that includes two sisters, Mewha demonstrated early on determination and a restless curiosity. "I've always loved new things and challenges and getting out of my comfort zone," she says. "I get a thrill from the uncertainty and adventure of trying something new."
Her mom puts it another way. "Life is a series of adjustments with Carrie. It makes things exciting." For a while, her passion was soccer, then softball, then dancing and a dozen other things. The one that sustained from childhood through college was horseback riding. "Nothing hooked me the way horses did," Mewha says. She and her younger sister, Kelly, competed in equestrian events, and to finance the expensive pastime, they worked at the stables, cleaning out stalls and grooming and exercising horses. Her mother remembers how the two girls once spent a school night at the barn, walking a sick horse. The owner couldn't be found, and they refused to leave the horse alone. The next day, they went off to school as usual. Mewha admits to some crazy, daring antics as child and teenager, such as trying to go over a jump while sitting backward on the horse. She fell a few times, but was never seriously injured. She undoubtedly recalled those stunts later, when on the equestrian team at the University of Florida she won the conference championship in jumping. No matter what new distraction snagged young Mewha's attention, school was always primary in her life. "My dad is a teacher, he runs the athletic department at St. Petersburg High. I never had the option of letting school be secondary." If grades slipped, all extracurricular activities were canceled. Her parents were floored when at the age of 15, Mewha announced out of the blue that she wanted to enter the Miss Teen pageant. "I begged them to let me compete," she says, recalling that she promised to do extra chores if they'd pay her entry fee. "It was a total fluke," she says of her win. Judging was based not so much on beauty, but on community service and scholarship, two areas in which even then she excelled. Even so, says her mother, "I was shocked. I thought, what did we get ourselves into here? But it was fun. What teenage girl wouldn't want to get dressed up like a princess and ride in a convertible in parades?" Mewha went on to become Florida's Miss Teen in '95, and one of 10 national finalists. In 97, she was among the top five in the Florida Junior Miss pageant. Two years later, at her mom's alma mater, she surprised herself again by being crowned Homecoming Queen. "I was a junior when I competed. I was never nervous because no one wins as a junior." Then in 2001, she walked off with the Miss Daytona Beach USA title, and this year, Miss Broward, (though she actually lives in Miami-Dade County). Come February, she'll represent the state in the Miss USA Pageant. "It's so subjective," she says with a shrug. Though it seems things come easily to this 5-foot 10, 130-pound, seemingly flawless super achiever, she and her mom both credit her successes to hard work and determination. There is also more than a small measure of competitive spirit involved. Says Mom, "Carrie would never settle for just doing OK. Even with the highest grade average in the class, she was still doing extra-credit work." And when she doesn't perform to her own high standards, she doesn't buckle. "What I admire about Carrie," says her mom, "is if she doesn't succeed, she doesn't quit. She learns something from the experience and tries again." Mewha, who attended UF on scholarships, still cringes when she talks about college calculus and physics. "I got a C in physics [her first ever]. That crushed me," she admits. Instead of backing away, she redoubled her efforts. "I realized I had to work a lot harder in areas that didn't come naturally to me," she says. Even in the dating department, as unlikely as it may seem, she's known disappointment. There was a guy at Florida she had a terrible crush on. "I got dumped," she says, "for a girl named Sunshine." Now she has another boyfriend, a med student at the University of Florida. Mewha decided to do her medical training at UM "because I wanted to be in a big city. Miami's great. You see a more diverse patient load here than probably anywhere else in the country." In leaving UF, she passed on to a successor a research project she'd been working on for more than 21/2 years. "The thrust of the project was developing a new treatment for breast and prostate cancer using gene therapy." Walking away from the research, "was kind of like giving away a child," she says. The trickiest test yet for Mewha will come over the next few months, as she tries to shoehorn personal appearances into an already hectic schedule. She hopes to get back into volunteering at a free health clinic in South Miami. "I'll also be doing some work with at-risk children in south Broward." And perhaps she'll squeeze in Ronald McDonald House. "I don't know whether I did more harm than good," she says, recalling her volunteer stint there as a cook. "I burned the spaghetti and the sauce one night." Should Mewha snatch up the Miss USA title in 2003, she'll take a year off from her studies. But she will return, she tells you, to pursue her career in high-risk obstetrics. "I feel I have to make a difference with my life, and in medicine you see where you can make a real tangible difference. I like having that effect, and seeing it right away." As for how her fellow students are reacting to her newly gained fame, she says, "They've been really nice. Everyone has been very excited. I don't wear makeup to school so I think a few were really surprised I could clean up that well. The guys are trying to get dates out of it. They told me they want to host a reunion for all the Miss Florida USA contestants." As printed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Margo Harakas
Staff Writer
Posted August 22 2002
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