PEMBROKE — If you ask senior Alaina Malcolm, UNC Pembroke’s catalog is one course short in the history department.
One that details UNCP’s history.
Malcolm plans to use her position as Miss UNCP to lobby university leaders to consider revising the course catalog.
“It is my hope that one day all new students, whether they are incoming freshmen, or transfer students, be required to take a class about the history of the university.”
“Most students walking around campus are not aware of the historical connection between the university and the community,” she said. “The community and the university go hand in hand. This community is thriving because of UNCP and it’s important that our students appreciate this correlation.”
The university has been a part of the Malcolm family for generations. Malcolm’s great-grandfather C.E. Locklear was among the first graduates in 1927 when the university was known as Cherokee Indian Normal School of Robeson County.
Her grandmother Vera Locklear Malcolm is a 1967 graduate and her father, Joshua, is a UNCP product and serves as general counsel for the university. They joined her mother, Meloria, and dozens other family and friends to cheer on Alaina during the pageant at Givens Performing Arts Center last week.
Malcolm, a sociology major, won a $2,000 scholarship, along with free student housing and meal plan for a year. Omega Cogdell was first runner-up. KaylaVera McBride was second runner-up, followed by Anna Grace Campbell who took home third runner-up.
LaRuth Anderson won both the Miss Congeniality and Kelsey Cummings Spirit awards. Destiney Chavis earned the Community Choice award.
Malcolm shined during the talent portion, a chance to show off her skills as a professional tap dancer. She wooed the judges and audience with her fancy footwork, performing a choreographed rhythm tap dance routine to the tune of Jay-Z’s “Run This Town.”
The Pembroke native has been dancing since she could walk. She was trained in the areas of tap, jazz, clogging, lyrical and ballet at Amy’s Academy of Dance Arts in Chadbourn. At 9, she joined the highly-competitive North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, performing across the country for more than nine years, including Chicago, New York, Canada and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Off stage, the multitalented Malcolm also has skills on the links. She played golf in high school and is a member of the UNCP women’s golf team. She serves on the executive board of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and chair of the Athletic Department’s Make-A-Wish Foundation. She is also heavily involved in her community as a firefighter with the Pembroke Fire Department and member of the Pembroke Rescue Squad’s Crash Team. In her spare time, she teaches dance in Fuqua-Varina.
Malcolm plans to pursue a graduate degree in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at UNCP. Her career goal is to become an Alcohol Law Enforcement agent with the State Bureau of Investigation.
