Representing a New Kentucky: Gia Combs on Pageantry, Service, and the Future of the Commonwealth
Back in February, Gia Combs had good reason to be confident when she arrived in Somerset to compete in Miss Kentucky USA. With aspirations of representing Kentucky on a national level, she focused her energy and prepared extensively in the months leading up to the competition.
Things didn’t go according to plan, though. “I ended up not even making finals,” she told Kentucky to the World in an exclusive interview. “It was really one of those things I was trying not to beat myself up about. I was super confident going in, but – you know – circumstances.”
Instead of dwelling on that outcome, she looked ahead. “I realized that it just wasn't my time,” she continued. “After not making finals at Miss Kentucky USA, literally the same night I was back looking at the Miss Cosmos Pageant.” All of her things were still packed, and she viewed the competition as an ideal “practice opportunity.”
Two weeks to the day that she exited Miss Kentucky USA, she found herself back on the stage vying for the prize to represent the Commonwealth. “And I won,” she said. “I was just kind of in shock because that was my first big win in a pageant.”
Gia Combs wouldn’t stop there, though. After continuing her rigorous preparation regimen through the Spring and first half of the Summer, she once again took to the stage in early August in Charleston, West Virginia. Here, she faced contestants from all over the country in what was her first national competition. The stakes were high, but her ambition and her faith in herself didn’t falter.
Once again, she won. “I feel like it really just shows you to not give up on yourself, to not let one closed door get you down because the next best thing or the next opportunity for you is waiting right around the corner,” she reflected. “Just because it wasn't my time in one area, it was in another.”
Gia Combs being crowned Miss Cosmos, courtesy of Miss Cosmos United States Pageants
As she gets ready for the international pageant in October, she aims to maintain the momentum she’s carried all year. And after considering how she got here and who helped her along the way, her chances this Fall are as high as her potential.
Using Pageantry as a Tool to Inspire Others
“I've always had an interest in pageants,” she recalled. Beginning in 2006, her mother, the U of L basketball legend and higher education advocate Valerie Combs, helped her channel her interest and passion in pageantry by helping her get ready for her first competition. “At the time, it was all about getting dressed up and going on stage,” she said. “I lived for those spotlight moments and the friendships that I made as a child.”
But there was always something more about the grandeur of the competition. “It was important for my mom and me too,” she said, “just because we got to bond and do all the little girly things together.”
Even though she got so much out of these experiences, she took an extended break to finish her secondary education at DuPont Manual High School. It wasn’t until 2017 as a new student at U of L that her attention returned to pageantry.
“I realized this could really be a door opener for me. As I got older, I feel like my view of it changed, of course. There’s so much more opportunity in pageantry as far as scholarship money, networking, and the connections that you make.”
Gia Combs, center, courtesy of U of L News
As she worked toward her degree in Psychology with a minor in Pan-African Studies, she was selected to be part of the 2020 Kentucky Derby Festival Royal Court. “I know a lot of people do think it's a pageant,” she told us, “but it’s more of a scholarship program.”
“I was on the court during COVID-19,” she continued, “so things looked a little bit different for us. But the way they just kind of wrapped their arms around us and the way they continue to support us and all the different things that we're doing has been incredible.”
Just one year later, she would be named the 2021 Kentucky Derby Festival Queen.
Blending a Passion for Pageantry with Social Work Service
Gia Combs views her success on the stage as a way to bring attention to issues that underserved, disenfranchised populations face – particularly when it comes to children and their parents. As a graduate student at the Kent School for Social Work at the University of Louisville, she promotes the significance of “establishing and maintaining those healthy relationships through positive mentorship with the youth,” she told us.
Equally importantly, her social work vision is primarily concerned with helping students and their families meet their basic needs. “How are you able to learn every day if you don't have food on the table at home, if you're going to school hungry?” she asked. In this capacity, she sees her role as a communicator and connector: “Because if the resources are out here and families aren't aware of them, then you know, what good is that doing?”
Social work, for Gia Combs, goes hand in hand with pageantry. “Not only am I able to have an impact and an influence on the students that I'm serving or even even the adults that I might be working with,” she said, “I'm also able to share my own experiences. So to be able to share that with today's youth and show them where they can go and what options are out there for them, it's really exciting.”
Charting a New Path through Valerie Combs’ Example
Gia is the first to admit that she wouldn’t be here without her mother Valerie. “She's been a trailblazer and a change maker,” she told us. “And she's not only made a name for herself, I feel that she's done an incredible job of helping uplift other people.”
“She’s very humble, and I think that she’s one of those people that won’t let other people get left behind, if that makes sense. If you call her out on her accomplishments, she’s so quick to highlight all the fantastic and incredible things that everybody else surrounding her is also doing. ”
As Miss Cosmos USA, a Master’s student of social work, and now the Development Coordinator for the Health Science Center Campus at U of L, she can’t help but see similarities in the advocacy work she and her mother perform. “To be able to see the impact that she's having on individual people,” she said, “it's exciting for me to be able to do the same, because it's all about setting up our future leaders for success and making sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful.”
Join us on September 27, 2023 at the Muhammad Ali Center for Kentucky to the World’s program Basketball and Brotherhood: Breaking Barriers, where Gia Combs will serve as emcee. The panel will include Wade Houston, Eddie Whitehead, Judge Derwin L. Webb, and Valerie Combs.
