The reigning Miss Collegiate Oklahoma said she thinks it’s a good thing she didn’t win the national title last weekend.
Seyton Thomas of Pryor will soon enter her second year as a graduate student, studying community counseling at Rogers State University. Thomas, who’s competed in pageants for nine years, secured her sixth title in September when she won the Miss Oklahoma Collegiate America pageant in Midwest City.
That qualified her to bear Oklahoma’s standard at the Miss Collegiate America pageant in Little Rock, Arkansas. The pageant crowned its winner, Carly Moran of Texas, July 5.
Thomas said she faced 44 other young women for the title, the largest field she’s encountered. She said it was the first time she failed to crack the top 16 at a national or international pageant.
“The thing about pageantry is there can only be one winner,” Thomas said. “So getting worked up about not winning or not making it, it’s just not even worth your time. … It’s definitely not the end of the world, and it’s not the end of my pageant journey, either.”
Though she has competed in many pageants before — some of her former titles include Miss Huckleberry and Miss Owasso — Thomas said Miss Collegiate America differed in a crucial way.
Her father, Brett Thomas, died about a month and a half before she left for Little Rock. He battled alcohol use disorder for a decade before succumbing to it May 1, she said.
Thomas said she’s glad she lost because she hadn’t had time to totally process her grief. She had to carry it undigested with her to Little Rock and put it aside while she competed.
“That’s why I do pageantry — I share my dad’s story,” Thomas said. “This was the first year that I shared my dad’s story, and he wasn’t here with us. … I buried my dad, and then the next month, I left to compete.”
Thomas said she’s also grappled with poverty. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and her mother lost their house. She said her sister moved back home to help out. They survived on grilled cheese and frozen burritos.
In junior high, Thomas said, she took a leadership class that inspired her to pursue service work. She said this experience changed her outlook.
“Something that I always tell people, service really saved my life,” Thomas said. “Pageantry is more than just being on the stage or wearing a beautiful gown. You actually get the opportunity to really connect with the community around you.”
Thomas has been mentoring the girls in the Miss Mayes County pageant system since giving up her title of Miss Pryor in 2019. She said she has also donated scores of shoes to the Tulsa Day Center, packed tens of thousands of pounds of food for hungry people across the state, and visited schools to talk to kids about the importance of donating clothes.
She said her draw toward service, her father’s addiction and her childhood poverty spurred her to choose community counseling as her course of study at RSU.
Michelle Taylor, director of RSU’s master’s program in community counseling, said she and Thomas will deliver a fall co-presentation on Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Thomas said Jung is her favorite because his theories make space for her to self-actualize through Cherokee-style storytelling, and she hopes to teach about him one day.
“My top overall goal is I really want to be a professor one day at a university,” Thomas said. “I like to teach, but I’m just really passionate about learning.”
Taylor said she admires Thomas’ exceptional artistry.
“Seyton is a motivated graduate student and future licensed professional counselor in our MSCC program who is lit from within by curiosity,” Taylor said. “She is passionate about becoming an effective counselor, as she has amazing ideas in working with athletes.”
Thomas got her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oklahoma State University, but she spent one undergrad semester at RSU. She temporarily moved back to Pryor after her dad got a liver transplant so she could help her sisters take care of their kids. She ultimately returned to Stillwater to finish her degree because her family loves the Pokes.
But Thomas said she’s very proud to be a Hillcat. Her Miss Collegiate Oklahoma crown — with which she will coronate her successor in September — lives for now in a rhinestoned glass box. An unpeeled Hillcat logo sticker leans against the inside of the container.
“I didn’t want to stick it on anything,” Thomas said. “I wanted to keep my college close. The Hillcat has actually been in this crown box since last October and has gone everywhere with me.”
