Katie Stam has heard her share of cynical comments about "beauty pageants," even from close relatives, but she's quick to correct any misconceptions.

"The Miss America pageant is a scholarship pageant," says Stam, a University of Indianapolis senior who will be vying for that storied crown in January after winning the Miss Indiana title on June 21. "It's so much more than standing onstage and being poised."

Stam, who turns 22 in July, has the resume to back up that statement, being listed on the honor roll and active in student government at UIndy. But as it turns out, she is especially good at being poised onstage, as well as on camera.

In her college career, she's been one of the top broadcasting students in the Department of Communication, acting first as news director and more recently as operations manager for startup campus cable station UIndy TV. This spring, she helped lead her classmates to an underdog win in the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters annual college competition, seizing the TV School of the Year title from much larger competitors. Stam herself took home first-place honors in both the TV News Anchor and TV News Package categories. She also was among six UIndy students to win national recognition this year in the Broadcast Education Association's annual competition, sharing second place in the TV Hard News Reporting category.