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Welcome to i-SAFE's Celebrity Corner. This is the only place to get an inside
look at the actors and athletes who help i-SAFE. Each month i-SAFE profiles a new celeb! Check out their bio and see how they answer five
questions from i-SAFE. It's the scoop on what they're doing now and what they're working on next. Get a sneak-peak at how they surf the web
and find out what they think you should do while online. It's all here in i-SAFE's Celebrity Corner.
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Back to Celebrity Corner
On June 30th Adrianna Sgarlata performed her final official duty as Miss Virginia; the placement of the tiara on the head of her successor. Adrianna’s 347 public appearances and singing engagements during her year-long reign, plus 78 media interviews add up to an appearance rate of more that one Miss Virginia-related event per day. The hectic year as Miss Virginia may be over; however Adrianna says the coming year is shaping up to be a very busy one as well. This summer, Adrianna is spending a month in Florence, Italy immersing herself in the culture and language. She hopes to come back fluent in Italian. We asked Adrianna about her future, her reign, and her work with i-SAFE educating students about dangers online.
i-SAFE: Can you put into words what this year was like for you?
Adrianna: It was challenging and relaxing at the same time. Above all, it was rewarding. I loved working with children – as a friend, a mentor, and role model.
i-SAFE: What are your most memorable moments during your reign as Miss Virginia?
Adrianna: I had the opportunity to ride the Santa Train. During the holidays, the Santa Train travels through the Appalachian Mountains in rural Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky stopping so passengers can hand out toys to needy children. Another highlight was singing the National Anthem at the kick-off of America’s 400th Anniversary at Jamestown. And, I enjoyed working with the military. I was the emcee of the Army Birthday Ball, appeared on behalf of the USO, and was on Military Idol. And, I’ll always remember the people I was fortunate enough to meet this year. You make your year into what you want it to be, and for me it was to meet people and affect change.
i-SAFE: In your opinion, what is the biggest Internet safety danger facing students?
Adrianna: As you know, when I first teamed up with i-SAFE, I believed the biggest danger came from online bullies. But, going to schools this year, and listening to students, I think that the online behaviors that naïve students do to themselves are more dangerous than the actions that students do to each other. What I mean is that students just don’t realize that revealing even just one small piece of personal information – like their telephone – can put them in serious danger. All you have to do is to put a phone number into a search engine and you’ll get their address. You see it all the time on their social networking sites. They hear, “Don’t reveal personal information,” but I think that most students believe that nothing bad could happen to them.
i-SAFE: How can we solve that problem?
Adrianna: It keeps coming back to education and awareness,
and the earlier the better. Schools need to train teachers so they can
communicate with their students. Parents need to keep up with the technology
and then step up to their responsibility. And, it needs to be a community-wide
commitment through leaders and law enforcement. Sound familiar? I know
I'm describing the i-SAFE Program, but I really believe that i-SAFE
has the correct formula.
i-SAFE: What specific message do you tell students about being safe online?
Adrianna: I tell them to slow down. They’re so quick to respond to that instant message (IM) or text message, especially when they’re angry. I tell them to take a step back and actually read the message they just wrote. Often, when they actually re-read the message they just wrote, they’ll admit that what they see written there maybe shouldn’t be sent at all.
i-SAFE: Are students getting the message?
Adrianna: Whenever students come up to me at a restaurant or a shopping mall, and tell me that I visited their classroom, I’ll quiz them. I’ll ask what they learned, and it’s cool to hear vocabulary and specifics about i-SAFE being told back to me. Some students will say they remember the four Rs and others will mention the Christina Long story. In classrooms, I watch students’ faces as they’re watching the videos about Christina Long and Ryan Halligan. They are really touched by those tragic stories.
i-SAFE: How did the beauty pageant experience prepare your for going into classrooms and speaking about Internet safety?
Adrianna: You wouldn’t think that there’s any correlation between the swimsuit competition, for example, and a job that requires the communication of complex and serious safety concepts to children. But, I think the judges are really looking past skin during the swimsuit competition and putting a value on perseverance and dedication. Believe me, it took a lot of both perseverance and dedication to go to the gym as much as I did, and eating the right things, to be able to get up on stage in a swimsuit.
And those are qualities nobody can fake, the students will see right through it. At the same time, the judges in the evening gown competition are looking at poise; they’re looking past the expensive clothes and fancy hair-do to see how a young woman carries herself in that situation. Is she grown up? Confident? Students admire those qualities, too.
i-SAFE: What are your plans for the future?
Adrianna: I’ll be getting back from Italy just in time to pack up and move back to college. I’ll be finishing up my Masters degree in Music at George Mason University. And here’s news, I’m also going to be an “Adjunct Professor” there. I’ll be teaching a course titled, “University 100.” It’s a class for freshmen performing arts students.
i-SAFE: Will you continue your commitment to Internet safety education and awareness?
Adrianna: Yes. I will do what I can.
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