A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: Aug. 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Garrison Reid, special contributor; Lisa Huang, special contributor; Nick Young, photography and layout.
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New Miss Texas makes Collin look good
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| The entire state watched Collin student Shilah Phillips win the Miss Texas pageant July 7. | Shilah Phillips, Frisco resident and Collin student, was named Miss Texas on July 7, the first African American to do so.
Phillips, 24, has been a student at Collin since the spring 2004, and has been a member of Expressions vocal jazz ensemble for three years and Jaztet One.
Phillips was named Miss Frisco in January and had competed on the hit reality TV show, American Idol. Now she can be a real American idol in 2007 when she competes in the coveted Miss America pageant.
For the Miss Texas pageant, which was televised across the state, Phillips won the talent and swimsuit competitions during preliminaries. She performed “I Believe In You and Me” made popular by Whitney Houston for the talent category. Her title includes a $13,000 scholarship, and Phillips will be in a reality TV series on CMT titled Finding Miss America leading up to the Miss America pageant.
"I am not surprised about Shilah's victory," Kathy Morgan, professor of choral music and the director of Expressions, said. "She is a winner. She is extremely gifted in music, she is poised and beautiful and a wonderful person to know."
Phillips lived in California for a number of years, recording demos trying to make it in the music industry. It was during this time that Phillips auditioned for American Idol. According to a Houston Chronicle story, she had quit college to pursue her singing dream, but she found out that education was a good start.
“After being in Los Angeles, I realized it was really important to finish my education,” she told the Houston Chronicle.
At Collin, in addition to Morgan's instruction, Phillips studied pop and classical voice with professor David Alexander and jazz voice with associate professor Sue Cruse.
"She took several different classes from me, and, in all of these, she brought a wonderful work ethic, a fun personality and was respected by her peers for her talent," Morgan said. "I think we all knew she was one of a kind."
She will transfer to the University of North Texas this fall and major in music.
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