Corinth Oglesby will compete for Miss Black USA in August
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Corinth Oglesby plans on entering the ministry one day, but until then she has an unexpected but rewarding path in front of her. She is a beauty queen, and a recent graduate of Ivy Tech Community College.
Neither of those things were on the agenda when she graduated high school, but she is grateful for both. Oglesby is a homegrown Kokomo resident, having attended Kokomo High School and Western High School before graduating in 2017. She went to ministry school in Alabama, but COVID eventually derailed that plan for her life.
Returning to Kokomo, Oglesby enrolled at Ivy Tech, and in May she graduated with an Associate’s degree in Business Administration.
But Oglesby is following a second path in her life at the moment. Last year, she was crowned Miss Indiana Juneteenth, leading her into the world of pageantry. A month later she competed in the National American Miss pageant, placing in the top 10.
“When I placed, I said, ‘Okay, I guess I might be pretty good at this,’” said Oglseby. “I was kind of just getting my feet wet, and I placed top 10 in my first national pageant.”
That performance caught the attention of the organizers of the Miss Black USA Pageant. She was invited to interview for the Indiana crown in December and was chosen to represent the state over 11 other contestants.
The Miss Black USA Pageant takes place Aug. 4-5, and Oglesby is hopeful that she will place highly once again. But pageantry is just for now. She has higher aspirations.
“I would love to be a worship pastor, essentially, and work the ins and outs of worship administration,” said Oglesby. “I thought that I would be doing pageants. It's been a whirlwind. It's been really fun, and I feel like I've grown with speaking and engaging with people.”
Oglesby was attracted to Ivy Tech after her sister attended and graduated with a degree in psychology. She now works as a guidance counselor in Indianapolis. Seeing that success, she decided to follow in her sister’s footsteps, educationally.
“Ivy Tech opened up a world for her, so I'm like, I could do Ivy Tech,” said Oglesby.
She decided on Business Administration because she had helped her parents with their business, Hobson Cleaners.
“I thought it was going to be easy,” said Oglesby. “How hard could it be? I helped kind of run the business here in Kokomo. We do it every day, but I didn’t know, the behind the scenes of things. I've worked with customers, but not the administration part of the business.
“I came to school, and then there was financial accounting and calculus and statistics. It was fun, but it was a challenge.”
Oglesby appreciates the time she spent at Ivy Tech. She made new friends, and now that she has a degree in hand, she plans on enrolling at Indiana University Kokomo next spring to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources.
“Ivy Tech is a launching pad for me,” said Oglesby. “They want you to finish. They want you to walk away with something. Fr people who are just starting out their college career, Ivy Tech can give you an idea of what you're about to go into. They want to help you be better and bigger than who you are.”