April Interview
with them. I never thought I would come back. … I didn’t have performing talent because I don’t sing or dance or play an instru- ment, and I also didn’t want to be on stage in a swimsuit … [but] they dropped the swimsuit com- petition in 2018, so that barrier was gone. … I ended up scrolling through Facebook one day … and saw an ad for a local competition … and so I’m like, “Maybe I’ll just try this. I’m not too old.” … I had to figure out the whole talent thing, and so … [I thought I’d try] a chemistry demonstration, right? I’m a scientist; I can be like Bill Nye. I got my beakers and my chemicals and all of that and … went to Miss Virginia and won, then went to Miss America and won.
VB: How did you decide what your platform would be as Miss America? Schrier: Miss America has two jobs: to further the mission of the Miss America Organization but also to promote the voice of a social impact initiative. … Talking about medication safety and prescription drug abuse is something that I do inherently as a pharmacy student and what I will do in my career. I didn’t want to just pull something out of thin air that wasn’t authentic. … Now [I’m] working with the DEA, which is pretty much the highest level that you can get in terms of working with drug safety and abuse prevention.
VB: Part of your mission is about STEM education advo- cacy. What are your plans for this year for that mission? Schrier: [There] was such a huge demand to have me come and do some events with young girls and young people, and be that crazy, kooky scientist girl with the crown on her head — people loved that … to just redefine what it looks like to be a woman in science. There’s this
22 | APRIL 2020
stereotype … [that] you can’t be glamorous and be a scientist. I’ve gone into that scientific realm and had people that questioned me because I was a woman that wore makeup and liked to dress up. Just as maybe in a role like Miss America, people wonder, “You’re a scientist? What?” I got to break stereotypes on
both sides of that equation. I really hope to travel around
and show kids that science is really fun by doing demonstra- tions. If we can get kids excited about science at a young age, then when … it gets really difficult, you can think back and remember how exciting it really is. It’s all tied together, and if I can be the cata- lyst for that — to use a scientific term — then I’ve done my job.
VB: How do you think we can get students interested in STEM and prepare them for tech jobs at companies coming to Virginia like Amazon? Schrier: Showing them where science can be applied. [At a recent event,] I asked [kids] to tell
me about something that they use in their life that has to do with sci- ence. The real answer is absolutely everything. Think about it: There are video games that they play. If they eat a Lunchable for lunch, if they use an iPad for homework, if they like watching TV, if they like watching cartoons, any of those types of things. There’s this perception that science is this very stuffy research, that it’s boring, and difficult and not relatable to people. … We have so many STEM jobs coming at us right now with this changing world of technology that we need kids to know that they have a place in sci- ence if it’s something that they’re interested in.
VB: What challenges are there for women in science? Schrier: I had a man tell me, “I know why there’s less women in science. Women just aren’t as suc- cessful in science groups because their brain is just wired differ- ently.” He made a point to come up to me at a meeting to tell me that. I was like, “Sir, you’re wrong.”
Photo by Mark Rhodes
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