CAMDEN — By PATRIC FLANNIGAN
Staff writer
A Camden native made history at a historically black university in Texas.
Camden Fairview graduate Adunola Rachel Osinuga was recently crowned the 72nd Miss Texas Southern University 2019-2020. Texas Southern University is the largest historically black university in Texas and the second largest in the Nation. Adunola Osinuga is now the first and only to actively serve in the U.S Army Reserve while serving as Queen.
The position of Miss Texas Southern University is based on contestants’ performances in five categories - private interview, commercial interview, formal wear, talent and on-stage question and answer. There is also a People’s Choice categories that makes up 10 percent of the overall score. Initially, another contestant was named as Miss TSU before it was discovered that Osinuga’s scores from the last two categories had not been entered. After the tallies were corrected, Osinuga had won 4/5 categories and captured the People’s Choice category.
Osinuga spoke with the Camden News about her recent achievement and she shared how she hopes her story can impact students that have been in her position. Osinuga spoke about not always being accepted by her peers and realizing that her differences were much deeper than her foreign appearance. She is a Nigerian American Born on the south side of Chicago. She stated that she has always been “colorful, charismatic and confident” and that wasn’t always understood in school.
“I remember being at the student award ceremony my senior year and feeling uncomfortable due to my lack of performance,” Osinuga said. “I just felt like all of these people were getting so many awards and I knew I could have too. But when you are growing up and dealing with being from a different place, academics become secondary to surviving. Sometimes I felt targeted by my peers just because I was from a different place. I turned that into motivation. I didn’t have the highest GPA when I graduated but I set a goal and most importantly me and my mother made a strategy for my success.
I was going to the military with no plans to fail. I graduated at the top of my class then I came back and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Hope with a degree in Funeral Service.”
Osinuga credited her mother, Adrianne Toney, for instilling in her the confidence she needed & the importance of being #god-like, #LiteracyRich & Prayerful. Osinuga also mentioned her mother Stressing the importance of education and through that HBCU’s became the interest of Osinuga & her family. She stated that while Toney was a very busy person as an author, philantrophist, speaker and state government appointee, it never out weighted her duties of being a parent. Osinuga said Toney took her and her little brother, Blake, on HBCU tours growing up and made it her priority to provide them the tools enabling them to read, write and speak well.”
“I have a well known mother that has a lot of obligations but it never distracted her from being our mother,” Osinuga said. “She pushes a #LiteracyRich lifestyle so I owe my voice to her. Things she has taught me make me a great woman, but how she has prepared me, the protocol she operates by & the pedigree I come from has allowed me to discover my purpose. I was born to help GIANTS communicate.”
Osinuga is not only active in the U.S. Army Reserve, but also a student and entrepreneur. Over the last two years, she has been named Miss Ultimate Beauty in California, Miss African Student Association and Miss Residential Life at Texas Southern University. While studying Speech communication, on last Spring she became a member of the Gamma Psi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated where she served as chapter president shortly after initiation & was appointed to the International Connection Committee as the official Undergraduate Representative for her sorority. Osinuga also runs her own online business AccessByAdu.com and is the creator of AduFIT “The Lifestyle Brand that Empowers.”
Osinuga said that being named the 72nd Miss Texas Southern University 2019-2020 would’ve been the last thing on her mind in high school. However, she sees it as a challenge she has no doubt in conquering because her faith in God is strong & she is built to withstand.
“I’m no pageant queen, but somehow God keeps putting me in these situations that require me to adjust my crown figuratively speaking. Although its in the wings of the stage & the fitting of my heels that I receive the most wisdom and I find myself Victorious”
Osinuga shared. “It’s been so rewarding. One of the points I share with people is that I am focused, invested and tested and I live my whole life that way. I tell them “We are FIT to lead, FIT to empower, FIT to serve & now even FIT for the crown.”
Osinuga said that she has a busy summer planned including a visit to her alma mater where she hopes to encourage graduates, share her story, and educate more students on HBCU’s. Her mother is planning a state-wide Fathers Day retreat and she can’t wait to receive such great Men on this event. Osinuga even mentioned her plans to bring “#ThePrincessProject: Pedigree.Protocol.Placement” a Mentor program to Arkansas following the release of her mother’s new book. She talked about Camden native and Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduate attorney Billy Scott and said that he is one of the main reasons she chose Texas Southern & plans to enroll in law school as well in addition to becoming a funeral director.
“You have to have a service mindset,” Osinuga said. “Service, service, service. You have to serve before you can lead. I always had a mindset to serve first and help people, leading came second.”