{"id":598,"date":"2013-08-07T07:26:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T12:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/lpa\/?p=598"},"modified":"2013-08-07T07:33:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T12:33:45","slug":"sau-social-work-student-competing-for-national-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/sau-social-work-student-competing-for-national-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"SAU social work student competing for national crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SAU<\/a>Miss Arkansas Latina Norma Aranda of Hope feels confident about her chances in the upcoming Miss Latina U.S. competition in Cancun, Mexico.<\/p>\n

Aranda, a sophomore social work major at Southern Arkansas University, has already made arrangements with SAU in case she returns for the fall semester a few days late. Should the Arkansas representative earn another crown as Miss Latina U.S., she will have to stay another week for the Miss Latin America competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I have a pretty good chance,\u201d said Aranda. \u201cYou are your only competition, really. If you do not do well in your interviews, the only one to blame is yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aranda knows that the two interviews will be important during the weeklong competitions for Miss Latina U.S. from August 18-24 at Barcel\u00f3 Maya Beach Resort. Throughout the week, the contestants have a full schedule of various activities and competitions, including rehearsals, press conferences, an excursion to Tulum Ruins, swimsuit and evening gown preliminaries, and the final competition Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

The contestants are not required to have a platform, according to Aranda, but she has personally become an advocate for education. Since being crowned Miss Arkansas Latina in October of 2012, she has made several appearances representing her title and for her cause.<\/p>\n

She recently visited the Consulate of Mexico in Little Rock and brought six backpacks full of school supplies to give away to children in the consulate lobby. Employees at the consulate were happy to help Aranda have an impromptu game show with the kids to see which three boys and three girls were the best at answering questions to win the school supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always liked to help people and have always been involved with community service,\u201d said Aranda.<\/p>\n

Her passion for giving back and encouraging education led to her changing her major to social work after her freshman year at SAU. Before that change, she had gone back and forth between three other degree fields.<\/p>\n

Aran\"Miss<\/a>da said she was inspired while watching 2010 Academy Award Nominee documentary \u201cWhich Way Home\u201d about the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers as they endeavor to make it to the U.S. to reconnect with their families and get a good education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked myself, \u2018Who helps these children and others who put their lives in danger to achieve their goals and better lives for themselves and their families?\u2019\u201d Aranda said. \u201cThe light went off\u2026or the light came on. I don\u2019t know how, but social work came to my mind and everything pieced together. This is where God wants me to be. This is what God made me for. This is why he made me the way I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classes at SAU begin August 28, and registration is Aug. 26-27. Should the well-spoken Aranda achieve her goals in Cancun, the University is making residence hall and class arrangements for her delayed return to campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miss Arkansas Latina Norma Aranda of Hope feels confident about her chances in the upcoming Miss Latina U.S. competition in Cancun, Mexico. Aranda, a sophomore social work major at Southern Arkansas University, has already made arrangements with SAU in case she returns for the fall semester a few days late. Should the Arkansas representative earn… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10489],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-student-spotlight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saumag.edu\/lpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}