PHILIPPINE bet Nicole Schmitz (left) hams it up with an indigenous Japanese string instrument together with a new friend from Okinawa and Russian delegate Ekaterina Meglinskaia, during an auxiliary event for 2012 Miss International pageant. Photo frommiss-international.org
Filipinos can help boost the chances of the country’s bet to the 2012 Miss International beauty pageant Nicole Schmitz of winning the title by voting for her on the Internet until 10 p.m. tonight (Friday).
To vote, one can log on the pageant’s official website www.miss-international.org and click the link to the contest’s Flicker account, then select Nicole’s image (No. 51).
The delegate with the highest number of votes will automatically advance to the semifinals. The winner will be crowned on October 21 by reigning queen Maria Fernanda Cornejo from Ecuador.
“The Miss International pageant is looking for an elegant, timeless, classic young woman who is strong and independent and can graciously influence others,” says Nicole, the 2012 Binibining Pilipinas-International.
And she believes she fits the bill.
The German-Filipino law student was interviewed by Inquirer Entertainment at the Gateway Suites of Gateway Mall in Quezon City before her recent departure for Okinawa, Japan to compete against some 60 delegates from other countries in the 52nd edition of the Miss International pageant.
Nicole said she has sacrificed a lot for this competition. “I had to set aside my [law] studies in Sydney, Australia, so I could come here and compete [in the national pageant]. I moved away from my family. So I’m living alone here, basically leaving everything, taking a chance and the risk.”
She explained: “It’s a dream of mine. I joined once before and I felt like this experience, this part of my life is not closed yet. So I had to come back and give it another shot because I knew if I didn’t, I would always regret it, and wonder ‘what if?’”
Nicole first joined the national pageant in 2007, where she advanced to the semifinals.
Aside from the prodding of her family and Philippine-based fans who sent her messages of encouragement via the Internet, Nicole’s desire to give Binibining Pilipinas another shot was heightened by her slew of victories in other competitions.
She placed second in the Miss Teen Philippines pageant when she was 16 and was crowned Miss Mandaue in 2006. Nicole won the Model Quest Australia search in 2007, and the Miss Philippines-Australia pageant the following year.
Among all the international beauty competitions, the Philippines has been most successful in the Miss International pageant with four titleholders—Gemma Cruz (1964), Aurora Pijuan (1970), Melanie Marquez (1979) and Precious Lara Quigaman (2005).