One of Harvard's own was at the center of glitz and glamour Saturday night, when Elizabeth E. Hancock '00, Miss Massachusetts, competed in the 78th Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.

Though she was not selected as one of the 10 finalists, Hancock, of Lowell House, received the Preliminary Interview Award Scholarship, one of several awards not announced during the television broadcast.

Hancock called it the "most phenomenal thing that has ever happened to me."

"Even though it would've been nice to win...it wasn't the most important thing," she said.

Preliminary judges of the competition chose her for the honor because her interview received the highest score of the 41 non-finalists.

Miss Virginia, Nicole Johnson, was named Miss America 1999 on the telecast.

Johnson, who is diabetic, is only the second woman with a disability to win the title of Miss America.

At Lowell House Saturday night, students sat glued to the television in the Junior Common Room, munching on snacks and rooting for Hancock.

Joining them were Eugene C. McAfee, the senior tutor in Lowell House, and former Lowell master William H. Bossert '59.

Students said they wished Hancock, known to her friends as "Emy," had won, but said that they were excited someone they knew had come so far.

"I'm so glad that she won the personal interview," said Leea K. Nash '00, a block-mate of Hancock. "It says a lot about her character."

Janelle A. James '00 agreed.

"[It honors] more than the people who made her dress or that she did a lot of cruncheo," she said.

While most students where shopping classes last week, Hancock was tap dancing to the Broadway musical "Forty-Second Street" for her talent competition or showing off evening wear and bathing suits.

Although Hancock, who competed on the platform issue of environmental protection and education, is originally a resident of Kentucky, her attendance at Harvard made here eligible to compete in Massachusetts, according to Klamkin.

The interview prize will bring Hancock $1,000 in scholarship money in addition to the $3,000 she will receive as a State Representative to the Miss America Pageant.

She will also intern on the ABC television talk show "The View," a job she was offered by one of the pageant's hosts just as she came of the stage.

Hancock is not the first woman from Lowell House to appear at the Miss America Pageant. In 1995, Marcia M. Turner '97 was honored as Miss Massachusetts.