By Dee DeQuattro, WPRO News
She is the girl who made Rhode Island the center of the universe; 20-year-old Olivia Culpo. The newly crowned Miss Universe, will return home to Rhode Island for the holidays before beginning her new responsibilities as Miss Universe.
She said she not quite use to the new title yet. “It’s still sinking in. This is a really awesome time I will never be able to go back to this. I am still just soaking it all up,” Culpo told the WPRO Morning News with Tara Granahan and Andrew Gobeil. She said it seemed like just yesterday she was crowned Miss USA.
Culpo has not always been a beauty queen. In fact, her first pageant was the Miss Rhode Island pageant. Culpo won that and went on to win Miss USA, and Miss Universe. Now she will spend the next year living in an apartment in New York City and working for the Miss Universe organization and working to promote AIDS and HIV prevention. After the year is up Culpo has a few ideas about where her future will take her.
“I was kind of going back and forth between hosting and acting. I just have to see what opens up and what I decide I really, really, want to do. I definitely still want to finish school though. I still have two more years,” said Culpo. Culpo left Boston College to perform her duties as Miss USA.
Culpo is the first Miss Universe from the USA since 1997 and she is the first Rhode Islander to ever hold the Miss USA and Miss Universe crowns.
