KOTA KINABALU: She’s a beauty who loves to crunch the numbers.
Malaysia’s newly crowned Miss Tourism 2022 Phoebe Ong’s favourite subjects in school were Math, Statistics and anything that had to do with numbers.
The brainy beauty eventually pursued her higher education in actuarial science at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom and came back with a degree in 2019.
The sky’s the limit: Ong during one of her visits around Perak during her pageantry journey.
Recalling her school days, she was known as the “school flower”, which was a common term to refer to the prettiest girl around.
But she hardly paid any attention to her appearance then as she was busy studying.
As she grew into an adult, Ong decided that she wanted to do something “girly” for a change and show her feminine side.
Ong, 25, toyed with the idea of taking part in a beauty contest.
The insurance agent finally built up courage and signed up for the Miss Sabah Tourism pageant this year.
She won, thus bringing her to the national level pageant held in Ipoh last month.
“To my surprise, I won in Ipoh, too,” said Ong, who spoke of having trouble doing the catwalk and public speaking during her preparations for the competition.
Ong said apart from her aching ankles and sore feet, the long hours she took to prepare and learn from experts, such as the organiser Sandra Ban, were worth it when she was named the winner at both state and national levels.
With her new title, the elder of two siblings said she wished to use the opportunity given to promote what Malaysia has to offer visitors.
Ong said in Sabah for example, she wished to highlight its nature and friendly people as well as the uniqueness of Sabahans who live peacefully regardless of race and religion.
“I want to tell the world and fellow Malaysians how beautiful Sabah is, how wonderful the people are and the importance of tolerance, mutual respect and love for harmony,” she said.
However, she wants to also educate locals on the need to maintain their homestays or any tourist sites so that people will want to return for another visit.
“It is also vital that we keep our home and country clean. Nobody wants to visit a dirty place,” Ong added.
Women, she said, should find courage to try something new, something they are afraid of doing and widen their experience and knowledge in various fields.
She said they would be surprised at what they could accomplish, besides gaining wonderful experiences and making new friends.
