Crowning achievement: Olivia Suchko
It’s hard to believe that the drop-dead-gorgeous, bubbly girl in front of me has ever struggled. But, she says that her high school days were hard and that she dealt with “a lot of sadness.”
Watching her work the camera during our photo shoot, it’s also incredibly hard to believe that the newly crowned Miss Pennsylvania USA, Olivia Suchko, is not a lifelong pageant girl. She’s only been competing in pageants for two years.
However, it’s in her blood. Her mom, Colleen Suchko, is a former Miss New York, hailing from Woodstock. She had actually tried to get Olivia involved in pageants while she was growing up, but she resisted. Upon finally trying it in 2015, not only did she love it and ask her mom why she hadn’t pushed her to do it sooner, but she was crowned Miss Mid Mon Valley.
Suchko, a 2014 graduate of Belle Vernon Area High School, says that when she entered that first pageant, she “did everything that pageant girls did. I got the hair and makeup artist, got the pageant heels, did the very cliché outfits and everything like that. I was a little bit too cliché.”
She took a different approach the beginning of last December at the Miss Pennsylvania USA Pageant, held at The Hyatt Regency, Pittsburgh International Airport. “I went in with a completely different mindset,” she says. “I was just so focused on them seeing me. I like to be different. I have a really weird personality. I have a very unique style.”
And, something that folks might find surprising, but that makes sense: “A lot of women forget in pageantry, that it’s about being the best you that you can be. It’s not about being better than other women. It’s not about wearing a certain outfit better than someone else. It’s about showing who you are. And I was really able to show that.”
Megan Wylie Ruffing
Colleen chimes in that Olivia’s study abroad helped. She’s currently a senior at Kent State University, in her last semester. A fashion merchandising major, she didn’t compete in any pageants in 2016 because she spent a semester in Florence, Italy.
“That really shaped a lot of who I am and helped me grow,” she says. “I literally grew more in those four months than I did my entire four years in college.”
But back to being crowned Miss Pennsylvania USA: “It was so crazy because they announce the first runner-up first. So when they said Madison (Longstreth’s) name, I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ My mouth just dropped. I don’t even know what was going through my head.”
She looked to the audience for her family, which also includes her older brother, Matt, and her dad, Scott, who owns Suchko Landscape Supplies and Andy Suchko Oil Co., both in Belle Vernon.
Colleen says they must have watched the video of the crowning 1,000 times in the past month, and both have said that the time period since the crowning has been a whirlwind. Not only is Suchko balancing appearances with her final semester, she’s also prepping for the Miss USA pageant, the date and location of which haven’t been announced.
She’s working with a team of coaches and sponsors, sharpening her interview skills – which are pretty good, in a media setting, anyway – choosing and fitting a gown, and working on her nutrition and fitness. A lifelong dancer, she has never had to work out, per se, because she would be in the dance studio from 4 to 10 p.m. every night.
“We have a lot of people on the team who have helped me to get prepared. Even though it’s the same organization, it’s a whole different level. Especially being on national television, live – you really have to be ready for it.”
Megan Wylie Ruffing
Thankfully, she’s only taking 12 credits this semester, half of which she is able to do online. She’s already spoken to one of her professors, who she has had in the past and with whom she traveled to Germany for a two-week study tour. He has agreed to work with her in the event that her Miss Pennsylvania USA duties or Miss USA prep should result in some missed classes.
As if that weren’t enough for this 21-year-old, she’s in the process of starting an online fashion retailer called MO, that will deliver ready-to-wear clothing to your door – hemmed, custom fitted and all – and she’s working to start a charity called We Are One. She’s hoping to use it as a springboard to not only aid the local homeless community, but to help the homeless get back on their feet, and to bring communities together to tackle any issues or problems that they may be facing. “We’re going to help each other, be each other’s neighbors. Even if you live on the opposite end of the city, we are neighbors,” she says.
Eventually, five to 10 years down the line, she’s hoping to take the charity to a national level. “I would love to see We Are One Pittsburgh, We Are One Philadelphia, We Are One Cleveland.”
Moreover, “I want to remind people that it doesn’t matter where you come from – you can come from a slummy area and still go far. I think people forget that. As long as you work hard, you’ll get where you need to be.”
And with that mantra, here’s hoping that later this spring, the woman crowned Miss USA is Belle Vernon’s own Olivia Suchko.