Profile: Miss World Canada Pageant Finalist 2010- Monique Redhead

“Be the change you want the world to see.” The following quote was said by the great Mahatma Ghandi; this is a quote I base the journey of my life on.

I was born Monique Shana-María Redhead, in Toronto Canada. My mother has nine siblings and is the daughter of a butcher. My father is one of six and the son of a baker; both were born in Grenada, the smallest country in the western hemisphere, located in the West Indies.  As immigrants my parents set a goal to escape poverty, they achieved this goal by coming to North America where the levels of poverty are such a contrast that they are incomparable. As a young child I’ve experienced many different cultures and for that I’m grateful.  I have an undying love for this world. I love the many countries, cultures and languages. I’ve lived in Europe, Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. I’ve been taught French, Spanish and Japanese. I am currently teaching myself Arabic and strengthening my skills in Japanese. I also understand my parent’s homeland language patois which is a form of broken English and French.  So when the question of what motivates me arises, the answer is simple; I am motivated by the concept of leverage, the ability to do more with less. I am a creative leader; I have a million ideas flowing through my head all unique all positive and most people see this trait in me after a 5min conversation. I’m different, and I embrace my difference. I search for new initiatives in ridding the world of poverty, violence and injustice. This is why I’ve became ambassadors of organizations such as OmniPeace as well as started my own organization called M.U.S.E which stands for Minority Uplifting while Showing Equality. M.U.S.E has events on different cultural backgrounds throughout the GTA and uses the proceeds from the events to fund missions to underdeveloped countries to educate youth on how to strengthen and build their own economy. I think I hold these issues dear to my heart because I know what it feels like to live in poverty; I know what it feels like to be a victim of an injustice. In contrast I also know what it feels like to be privileged. I was the little twiggy girl that wanted to play basketball with my friends but was too small in elementary school. But I grew into the girl from gr8 onward that excelled in sports leading to scholarships in Arizona, Virginia now I’m pursuing my Masters degree at Georgetown University, one of the most prestigious schools in America. After high school, I was offered a full athletic scholarship to school in Arizona where I obtained my Associates degree in business and minored in foreign languages. While attending Eastern Arizona I was recognized by the institution for organizing the first of many Black History Month events. The event consisted of a Fashion show, Cultural dinner, entertainment and various speeches acknowledging famous African Americans. This event had 50 participants that I was solely responsible for and about 300 people were in attendance. This was a large step for a small Mormon-based town and this event was actually the stepping stone to establishing the schools first Black Student Association. After attending school in Arizona I received another full scholarship to school in Virginia at a historically black university. There I earned a bachelors degree in Business with concentration in Entrepreneurship. At university in Virginia I also attended the Honours College (almost an equivalent to gifted classes) in which I was one of three graduates to earn vice-presidential honours out of the 500+ graduates in 2008/2009 academic year. Another academic accomplishment of mine that I am extremely proud of is my certificate in Future Global Leadership from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). UVI took 40 honours students from around the world and brought us together to be lectured and taught by former country ambassadors, linguistic professors, as well as members of the United Nations. We were even allowed to attend a lecture by Minister Louis Farrakhan. UVI strengthened my feelings on global sustainability in a world of climate change and helped me rear my life into becoming more economically friendly and pushing the perseverance of a healthy planet.

Ultimately taking what my family has started and expanding it to greater horizons is my first priority and form of leverage. Secondly, it’s bringing out the beauty in the world. My motivation comes from many places, one is from listening to my parents recall experiences of having to tote water, pick bananas and witness racial mishaps. I am also motivated through personally experiencing different cultures and social classes. I am not only a certain race, gender, or culture because I’ve let the experiences in my life retract ignorance, stereotypes and biases. As I’ve said many times “One’s culture does not define who they are, but it will define who they will become.” In North America the majority of our society is un-aware of who is really underrepresented as minorities. I mean just off the top of your head, who do you think is the #1 most underrepresented minority in North America? A lot of people instantly think race or religion; it’s actually people suffering from obesity. I found out that many of our 20-something year old peers won’t even reach the age of 40 because of this. It’s sad and also on of the reasons why I love volunteering at an organization I grew up with called street level and SEYA (South Etobicoke Youth Assembly). At these organizations we don’t only teach sports, fashion and the arts we incorporate fitness, healthy living, longevity and understanding into these creative forms of expression.

My greatest strength is my desire to unleash the potential I see in others. It’s a constant motivator to me. As an athlete one thing I notice with my team-mates is their difference in achieving potential, so I think that unleashing the potential someone thought they never had is truly an art and a true strength because it shows my genuine interest for everyone to excel to their highest level. In contrast to my strength I would say that my greatest weakness is taking on many tasks at once.  I’ve been on full-basketball scholarship for four years all while starting my schools first minority organization in Arizona, pushing a modelling career, helping to strengthen and encourage youth in my community though two organizations and sports, attending an honours college in conjunction with my universities and becoming a certified future global leader at the university of the Virgin Islands. It’s a lot but I wouldn’t take back a second of it. Currently, a typical week for me consists of me doing three things:

1. Aiding the world from the children or youth standpoint

2. Expanding my knowledge on a global scale

3. Educating myself and affecting my future positively

This week that consists of preparing for the Miss World Canada National competition in Vancouver, signing up as a mentor and volunteer for the annual Talent/Fashion showcase in Etobicoke that I co-produced last year. Volunteering with a non-profit organization called Canada Basketball Academy. Moving on in my level of self-taught Japanese to the point of a causal conversation. Working on my diction of the Arabic language. Conversing via skype with people in Senegal, France, Brazil and morocco in their native tongue. I am also interning for professional basketball team, the Washington Wizards and non-profit organization Peace Players International, Updating my class blog and studying my course material as I am currently pursuing my Masters degree in D.C. at the prestigious Georgetown University, one of the best universities in America. And I always try to throw in some morning Yoga, evening Exercise and of a course some family quality time. I also can’t live with music and a good Paulo Coelho novel. Many times taking on so much has become overwhelming but the way I get through it is I sit down, meditate and organize! Organize! Organize! A positive part of my weakness is that I’m now veryyy detail oriented.

The Miss World Canada regional pageant, which took place in Toronto late March, was one of the best experiences in my life. I walked into the pageant underestimating my abilities, my countries evolution and my social class. Though the help of a very supportive family and a community I had a strong backbone. Additionally I had the opportunity to be sponsored by Charmaine Mills of Advance Image Consulting who became my glue through the entire Miss World Canada regional process. Charmaine helped me to sharpen my acquired skills and present them in a manner that it would be duly noted. Because of Charmaine at Advance Image Consulting I came out this experience with the understanding of an additional culture, what it truly means to be Canadian and realized that despite my financial status we have the power to shrink our dreams to fit reality or the power to stretch our reality to fit our dreams.

            In the words of first lady Rosalynn Carter “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” I believe that there are multitudes of economies that people ought to be researching and developing, but many only choose dominant industries, markets and economies; instead of becoming leaders of the constantly changing global business environment they’ve chosen to follow the crowd. I want to take people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be, Miss World Canada and their motto of Beauty with a purpose has enabled me do so. Beauty pageants are not the most well respected industry in Canada but if you really take some time and experience the world of pageantry you will be amazed because it’s really not about the evening gowns, swimsuits, opening number, sash and crown; it’s about the bonds created, the uniqueness of our country and the strong urge to continuously help the world on a global scale. This pageant has helped me evaluate success. After this pageant I realized that success is evaluated by reaching you highest potential, against all odds, obstacles, boundaries and barriers. Success is making a difference in whatever it is you stand for. My success is evaluated by how many people I inspire just from my aurora, potential or current accomplishments, and I’m able to evaluate it everyday.  I evaluate success when people realize their potential and ability to affect the world.

My long-range objective in life is to “Live for my work” as oppose to “Work for a living” I want to touch the lives of people in some modern way shape or form and I want to enjoy their presence and this world while doing so. If I had to live my life over again I would change my timeline of experiences, lessons and successes to have happened earlier because I feel like as time continues I’m becoming even more stronger, driven and accomplished, and I’ve been able to help so many people through conversation, hands on helping and outreach, but foresee myself helping a lot more in the future. So having moved everything to earlier dates in my life I would have been able to accomplish even more throughout my lifetime.

I have achieved some much in my life and I’m still in my early 20’s, It almost scares me when I think about how much more I can achieve and how different the future is from the past.