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May 1, 2007

The Power of Two

Ms. UTA and her predecessor have known and supported each other since elementary school

Story by: Anthony Williams

The Shorthorn Scene editor

The Shorthorn: Lindsey Clark

Miss UTA 2006-07 Ashley Thomas, left, and Miss UTA 2007-08 Brittney Joseph have known each other since their kindergarten class in Houston.

In all social circles, it’s common for someone special to emerge from the pack.

In many situations, those that excel in high school tend to lower their profiles when they go to college.

That’s not the case with either marketing junior Brittney Joseph or architecture junior Ashley Thomas. The Houston natives attended the same elementary school and have continued their high-school success at the university, where they have both earned Ms. UTA titles.

“It’s good to see how we’ve grown since kindergarten and to see someone from your city excelling like Ashley has,” Joseph said.

“We know if we can succeed on campus, we can succeed off campus,” Thomas said.

Both have made strides here, including being only the second and third black Ms. UTAs, but initially set their sights high at the prestigious River Oaks Elementary School in Houston.

“Neither of us lived near there. They tested to get in,” said Brittney’s mother, Kay Joseph. “We met Ashley and her mother in kindergarten there. [Ashley and Brittney] were good friends up until the fifth grade when we moved, but they kept in contact.”

While Joseph became more active in Humble, on the outskirts of Houston, Thomas did the same in the city, dancing as a Junior Blue with the Houston Oilers. Ashley Thomas’ mother, Elnora Thomas, said Ashley became the first girl to make homecoming court all four years at Houston’s Lamar High School. And just as Ashley Thomas was crowned queen in 2003, Brittney Joseph was elected queen at Humble High School.

“She’s planned lots of goals, but I don’t know how she got into this pageant stuff,” Elnora Thomas said. “She didn’t get it from me!”

Ashley competed her senior year in Orlando, where she placed fourth out of 60 girls. Throughout middle and high school, though, the two girls kept in touch through friends, seeing each other at the occasional party.

In 2004, as they were looking at colleges, Brittney and her mother toured UT-Austin.

“She didn’t like it,” Kay Joseph said. “It was too big, and she didn’t think she’d be able to do as much as she’d like to.”

So Brittney Joseph started looking at UTA. She came to a Spring Preview Day, where she happened to run into the Thomases.

Joseph and Thomas became close again quickly as they prepared to go to college together. While they weren’t roommates, they were among the first group to live in Kalpana Chawla Hall.

Photo Courtesy: Kay Joseph

Ashley Thomas (first row, far left) and Brittney Joseph (second row, far right) stand in their kindergarten class photo.

“I remember freshman year. We would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together,” Joseph said. “And we’d go to parties and just hang out. It was good to have someone else here you knew growing up. It made the adjustment easier.”

Carter Bedford, Student Governance and Organizations associate director, met Joseph when she was part of his leadership Freshman Interest Group.

“I was impressed with Brittney since then,” Bedford said. “She was always determined, always had her eye on something bigger. She never settled.”

He wouldn’t meet Thomas until she participated in the Miss Black and Gold Scholarship Pageant, which she won in 2006.

“She has a good attitude and is able to mesh with lots of different types of people,” Bedford said. “She’s a very talented lady.”

As both girls achieved many of the same things at different schools, they realized they might have to sacrifice some things for the sake of friendship.

“Brittney and I always like to be in stuff, to have our name out there in a positive way,” Thomas said. “Neither of us knew we wanted to do Ms. UTA, but we talked together to see if it was a good thing. Last year was my time, and this year was meant for her.”

Joseph had similar sentiments, calling the two students’ relationship a support system.

“Both of us are very, very competitive. We’ve always been that way,” Joseph said. “She has her set of goals, I have mine, and we have that competitiveness where it’s OK, we’re still friends.”

Theater arts sophomore Tim Brown knows the women through friends and organizations. When he learned they were from the same area and school, it solidified to him that their accomplishments were meant to be.

“It’s just following prophecy for them to come together to the same school and follow each other’s reign with Ms. UTA,” he said.

While Joseph prepares to succeed, Thomas is already hoping to follow in Joseph’s steps and become next year’s homecoming queen.

“As a friend, I stepped back,” Thomas said. “And if next year is supposed to be my time, it’ll happen.”

Both know people will likely think they’ve been plotting to take over since grade school, but Joseph said it’s not like that at all. They do have respective ideals, including Thomas and Brown’s brainchild, Ambassadors 4 Christ.

Bedford said it’s good to see two people who’ve known each other since way back when come together miles away from home and, while doing their own things, help each other succeed.

“They’re definitely top-notch ladies,” he said.