THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070407
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Andrea Ballengee denied claims that she embellished a resume that helped her become Miss Virginia, and the pageant director said after a daylong investigation that she can keep the crown.
``It's over,'' director Margaret Baker said late Thursday. ``Andrea is going to be a great Miss Virginia, and we are behind her 100 percent.''
Ballengee and pageant officials said the resume challenges boiled down to misunderstandings.
``I believe 100 percent what I wrote down,'' Ballengee said at an impromptu news conference in Roanoke, where she was crowned Miss Virginia on Saturday. ``I am here to stay. I would never do anything to tarnish the crown I worked so hard for.''
Ballengee finished in the top 10 at three previous pageants before prevailing this year in representing Hampton, where she lives, and Newport News.
Less than a week into her reign, officials from Virginia Tech and Tabb High School said Ballengee claimed high honors she did not receive.
On a form all Miss Virginia contestants were required to fill out, Ballengee listed membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honorary society, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
She also said she graduated as a ``Highest Honors Graduate'' at Tabb High School and won the Yorktown school's Most Outstanding Female Athlete award.
Tom Adriance, chairman of Virginia Tech's Phi Beta Kappa membership board, said Thursday that Ballengee ``wasn't anywhere close'' to getting the 3.6 grade point average needed to qualify.
Ballengee said Thursday that she received an invitation to a Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony, and her mother, Pat Ballengee, said she posted the letter on her refrigerator after receiving it last fall.
Adriance said, ``We didn't send the invitation, period,'' and added that they are mailed in the spring.
But he said Ballengee may have confused Phi Beta Kappa with Phi Kappa Phi, another honor society with a lower academic requirement that sends invitations out in the fall.
``I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt,'' Adriance said.
Ballengee also wrote that she had graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Tech. But the registrar's office said Ballengee graduated with cum laude distinction, which requires a 3.4 to 3.59 GPA, instead of the 3.6 or above required of magna cum laude distinction.
Tabb principal Michael Tylavski told The Roanoke Times that Ballengee did not have a required 3.25 cumulative grade-point average to be an honors graduate by definition, but that she had earned an ``advanced studies diploma,'' which required at least a 3.0 GPA.
Tylavski said Thursday that Ballengee did not graduate with honors but did receive the highest honors distinction, which takes overall accomplishments into consideration.
And Ballengee said she put the athlete rather than cheerleader on the resume because she considers cheerleaders to be athletes and didn't have a clear memory of the award given four years ago.
``She's getting a tough start in her reign,'' Oakey acknowledged. ``That's OK. We're behind her all the way.''
KEYWORDS: MISS VIRGINIA PAGEANT WINNER by CNB