reffiw

Miss Nebraska MollY McGrathOn the moneY

n 1 the age of 23, Miss Nebraska MollY

A T McGrath boasts a long list of

ff t accomplishments, the most recent of

which is being named the preliminary Lifestyle

and Frtness in Swimsuit winner at the Miss

America 2007 competition inJanuary'To cheer

her on during the competition, nearly 50 friends

and family members traveled to Las Vegas'

Scholarship, service' success and style, these

are the values the Miss America Organization

strives to uphold. Besides her title win, Molly

has won various awards in the interview, talent,

poise and swimsuit categories-proving that

she shines in all of these areas. Her earnings

total more than $20,000 in scholarships from

local, state and national Pageants'"I first got involved in pageants because

I liked the fact that they're looking for the

uhole usoman-a woman that excels in several

different areas," says McGrath.

Having graduated magna cum laude

with honors in economics from New York

Universiry she is pursuing her master's degree

in economics at the Universiry of Nebraska

at Omaha. McGrath, an Omaha native, is

currently taking a year off from school while

she fulfiIls her duties as Miss Nebraska 2006,a

title she will hold until June.

Since being crowned, Molly has taught

workshops and has spoken at several events in

support of her platform, which is "Economic

Empowerment: The OPPorrunities of

Freedom." Her workshoP, MAX IT OUT

Hou to MaximizeYour Money, Time and Skilk,

teaches students in grades 4-12 about the

fundamentals of the free enterprise system'

SinceJune, she has spoken to more than 5,000

students throughout the state.

"I'm a big believer in the free enterprise

system and [your] ability to take care of

yourself and use the resources that you have,"

says McGrath.

The MAX IT OUT concePt began

as a youth conference that Molly helped

to organize through the Students in Free

Enterprise team at UNO, a team she founded'

SIFE is a non-profit organizationwith more

than 1,800 teams at universities worldwide'

McGrath also founded and was president of a

SIFE team at NYU.

Molly explains, "Student teams design

projects and go out into the community and

teach people about personal finance, personal

success skills, economics and entrepreneurship'"

The conference offered workshops to local

high school students on a variety of topics,

including time management, financial literacy,

interview skills, and resume writing'

"I recognized a major need in the community

among young people, especially those from low-

income families," Molly says. "This is the kind

of information they can use to change their

futures. fPeople] often think that if they dont

have a lot of money that they dorit need to

know how to manage it, which is wrong'"

In addition to her outreach work, Molly

has developed a strategic partnership with the

Nebraska Council on Economic Education and

has acted as their official spokeswoman for the

year.This partnershiP has enabled McGrath

to promote four common goals: economic

education, financial literacy, teacher training and

student activities. She hopes to continue working

with the council even after her reign is over'

McGrath feels that, with credit card debt and

bankruptcy rates on the rise in the United States,

young people are lacking economics education

and need to become financially literate. She has

found that, when given the oppornrnity, students

are eager to learn about personal finance'

McGrathfeels that' with tedit card debt and

bankruptcy rates on the rise in the United States'

younf piople are lacking- econornics education-

a;A nied to becomefinancially kterate'

"They like learning about money that's

for sure. They think that's fun," Molly adds'

"Getting them to get motivated [to manage

their time] is a little bit harder."

As a DECA state officer in high school,

Molly counts herself lucky to have learned

about time and skills management at a

Franklin Covey seminar. She believes that

people often overlook how these factors can

influence their success.

"It's about all of our resources, which

includes our skills and our time'"

McGrath is concerned about the

amount of distractions available to young

people. She feels that all the options that

high school students have "to basically

sit around and do nothing-sitting at the

computer, playing video games, watching -

TV, iPods, etc." are standing in the way ot

their success.

When asked to share a success secret'

Molly emphasizes the importance of setting

goals. According to McGrath, once your

goals are set' you can figure out what your

financial needs will be in order to achieve

those goals. Then, it's time for research'

Molly lists www.mymoney.gov as one of the

most useful tools for understanding a vaiety

offinancial toPics.

With her interest in economics' Molly's

long-term goals include working for the

Federal Reserve, World Bank or the National

Council on Economic Education' However,

Molly would like to continue living in Omaha,

especially since her family is here'

The daughter of Mike and Ruth McGrath,

Molly has four brothers, Pat, Mike, Joey and

Bradley, and one sister, Rosie' Her father, who

Molly calls "frugal," has worked as a route

salesman at Roberts Dairy for more than

25 yexs. Ruth, her mothef' once owned a

franchise of The Maids and went on to clean

homes as an independent contractor'

While at NYU, MollY started her own

cleaning business, McGrath Maids & Co',

after having trouble finding ajob that would

work with her school schedule' Relying both

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on flyers and word-of-mouth advertising, she

supported herself by cleaning fellow dorm-

dwellers'rooms and bathrooms. She even

became known as "the girl who cleans toilets."

This entrepreneurial spirit and drive

has made McGrath highly successful as a

pageant competitor. She competed in her first

scholarship pageant at 17 years old. When

she won the Miss Nebraska 2006 title, Molly

passed her crown for Miss Sarpy Counry 2006

to the first runner-up. Her goal was to be Miss

America 2007. However, her disappointment

is somewhat tempered by the fact that the job

essentially changed this year."It was a very surprising year, I have to say,"

McGrath confides. "With all the problems

with Miss USA and Miss America having

now adopted Children's Miracle Network as

their national platform, it's a very different

job than it was even last year. It's especially

a differentjob than from when I started

competing several years ago."

A wholesome persona was prioriry number

one for the Miss America judges this year,

according to McGrath. In the midst of

several pageant controversies, including

Miss USA Tara Conner's underage drinking

and briefstay in a rehabilitation center, the

Miss America Organization was looking to

underscore their role model image."I definitely thought Miss USA should have

lost her title. I thought it was ridiculous that

she got to keep it," says McGrath. "When

you only have a year to do your job, there's

no room for ferrors]. The fact that she was

underage just makes it so much worse."

Molly McGrath sees her role of Miss

Nebraska 2006 as a job, a job at which she

wants to do well. Molly aims to finish out

her year with "a bang."Therefore, she plans

on continuing to work with her platform, do

appearances and teach workshops untilJune,

when she passes the crown to the new Miss

Nebraska. Ifyou are interested in learning

more about her platform or scheduling an

appearance, Molly can be contacted through

her Web site: www.missnebraska2006.orq A

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