Miss Greater Jacksonville Brooke Cornelius, a second-year student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, was among the Top 10 finalists for the 2018 Miss Arkansas Pageant, winning $6,500 in scholarships. 

Cornelius, of Hope, competed for the fifth time in the Miss Arkansas Pageant. She got the opportunity to compete an extra year when the Miss America Organization raised the maximum age to compete from 24 to 25 earlier this year.

While Miss Historic Batesville Claudio Raffo was crowned 2018 Miss Arkansas on June 17, Cornelius had a successful run in the pageant as a preliminary winner who also landed a spot in the pageant’s Top 10.

During the preliminary competition on June 14, Cornelius was named co-winner in the Talent Preliminary competition with a tap dance routine set to “Thriller.” She also ran on an anti-bullying platform titled, “Protect Our Youth: Bullying is Not Ok!”

As a Top 10 semifinalist, Cornelius received a $3,000 scholarship from the Miss Arkansas Scholarship Foundation. She also won the Buddy Coleman Memorial Overall Talent award with a $2,750 scholarship given by Buddy Coleman Family and the Sloane Roberts Overall Dance Award with a $750 scholarship provided by Michelle and John Mark Roberts.

In 2016, Cornelius was the second-runner up. In 2017, she was recognized as a top-five Miss Arkansas CMN Miracle Maker fundraiser.

Cornelius has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Henderson State University and hopes to combine the expertise from her undergraduate degree and future law degree to pursue a future as a corporate attorney.

In the upper right photo, UA Little Rock Bowen law student Brooke Cornelius (left) won the Preliminary Artistic Expression award during the Miss Arkansas Pageant preliminaries on June 14. She is shown with additional preliminary winners Kelsey Stone and Darynne Dahlem. Photo courtesy of Miss Arkansas Pageant.