NICK GOSNELL Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — For newly crowned Miss Kansas America, Alexis Smith, she really enjoyed bringing her friends on to the stage with her at the pageant.
"I've been performing ventriloquism for 19 years," Smith said. "You know, when you're not in pageants, you don't have that aspect of being on stage and getting to perform for others, and so coming back to the Miss Kansas organization and being able to bring my friends back out and be able to perform for Pratt community and my family, friends, and everybody that is there to support us was incredibly special."
Smith's platform is domestic violence awareness and prevention.
"Respect Reclaimed: Advocating for Healthy Relationships, it stems from my own personal experience with domestic violence," Smith said. "It started at the age of 14 for me, but it's something that was in my family before that and I just fell into that cycle of abuse, but I recognize that healthy relationships are important in all facets of life and those characteristics of a healthy relationship can be applied in all facets of life, so I chose that platform to be able to help reduce domestic violence in our communities while also focusing on the importance of healthy relationships."
Smith also will have to talk to her job about being more flexible with her schedule now that she's won the Miss Kansas crown.
"I work as a cardiothoracic ICU nurse here in my hometown," Smith said. "The biggest part of my job is being empathetic and being able to be there, not only for the patient, but for the families, and there are unfortunately times where, you know, in one of my rooms, there is a patient that is going through their process of the end of their life, and in another room, there's a patient that's having a speedy recovery with families that are laughing and are very joyful to see their family member recover. So the biggest thing in that part of my job is to remember that I get to be that rock for those families and for that patient. And I think just my ability to really empathize and be a caring individual is what makes that job easier for them."
Smith wants to go on and become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, which is a doctoral program