Nicole Rash - Biography

Biography

Rash was born in South Bend, Indiana, lived in LaPaz, Indiana, and attended LaVille Elementary through the 3rd grade. While she was growing up, Nicole participated in a couple of children's pageants and modeling, showing up in some local advertisements.

In 1994 Nicole's family moved to Plymouth, Indiana where Nicole attended Jefferson Elementary. In her 4th grade year, she experienced her first overseas travel when she entered a direct exchange program through the school with an elementary school in France. She and her family hosted a female student for 3 weeks and Nicole went to France for 3 weeks where she learned to appreciate other cultures and languages. She then attended Lincoln Junior High School in Plymouth for the 6th-8th grades where she excelled in academics, choir, and athletics being on the volleyball, basketball, and track teams. Nicole continued doing well throughout high school being an Academic Honor Society member, among many other clubs, and she continued in sports; she helped lead the volleyball team to sectional championships, the track team to conference wins, and still holds the high jump record with a jump of 5'5" which she achieved her sophomore year. She also placed 9th at the Indiana Track State Finals her senior year in high jump. Nicole graduated from Plymouth High School in 2003 with an academic honors diploma, being in the top 12% of her class, was awarded many scholarships including the presidential scholarship from Ball State University, and was even voted "Most Likely to be a Rockstar" by her class.

Upon graduation Nicole had unconventional plans for her immediate future. Rather than choosing to go to college right away, she chose to travel to South America as an exchange student through an AFS Intercultural Programs-program. Having had several exchange students in her house, since her first experience in France (including exchange students from China, Japan, Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria some staying in their home for an entire year), Nicole decided she wanted to learn the Spanish language fluently and experience the South American culture. She chose Bolivia as her host country and lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia with a host family from September 2003 - August 2004. She attended a high school (Isabel Saavedra) in Santa Cruz for part of the time and even took some college courses while learning the Spanish language.

After she returned to the States in 2004 Nicole started attending Ball State University studying telecommunications, theatre, and dance performance. Then, because of her experiences in South America she tested out of several levels of Spanish, and was chosen to go on another exchange. This time, she traveled to Chile, South America where she lived in Santiago and attended UNIACC University while earning college credits through Ball State for one semester. She continued to study theatre there, and helped teach English classes for 6 months from March 2005 – August 2006.

Because of the difference in the semesters, Nicole didn’t make it back in time to start the next fall semester at Ball State. So, she instead decided to pursue other opportunities in modeling. She started by sending in an audition tape to the CW network's America's Next Top Model, and was chosen as a semi-finalist. However, she did not advance any further in the competition and after sending pictures and resumes to many agencies across the country with no replies, she decided to focus on other things for a while. She was then offered a job at St. Joe Regional Medical Center in Plymouth as a Spanish interpreter because of her Spanish language abilities acquired while living in South America. Nicole worked at the hospital as needed for the year and also substitute taught for the Plymouth School Corporation on occasion

It was during this time that Nicole entered the Miss America Organization for the first time and became interested in fashion design because of an experience in designing her evening gown for Miss Indiana 2006. So, in the fall of 2006, Nicole decided to change her major from Theatre and Dance Performance to Fashion Merchandising and Apparel Design. She stayed at Ball State for two semesters, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007, earning a 4.0 each semester with her new fashion major. While studying, Nicole decided to enter the Miss Ball State University Pageant, won the title along with the swimsuit & interview preliminary prizes, and went on to the Miss Indiana pageant in June 2007 where she became the first Miss BSU in its 50 year history to win the title of Miss Indiana.

Since then, Nicole served as Miss Indiana for the entire year (June 2007-June 2008) performing numerous tasks as the state's titleholder. She also filmed the reality show "Miss America: Reality Check" in September 2007, which produced 4 episodes that aired in the weeks before the Miss America pageant in January. She then represented the state of Indiana in the Miss America Pageant, where she received 1st runner-up, and served the rest of her year as Miss Indiana traveling the state talking to various middle schools about the "Right Decisions, Right Now" program among other things. She then passed her title on to the 2008 representative, Katie Stam, but remained the 1st runner-up to the 2008 Miss America until January 2009. Katie Stam, Miss Indiana 2008, went on to win Miss America in 2009 making her the first and only Miss Indiana to be crowned Miss America !

After Nicole completed her duties with the Miss America organization, she moved to Orange County, California to pursue a job opportunity with a clothing company in L.A. which culminated from her appearance on Miss America (where she showcased her self-designed evening gown). She was also accepted at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 2008 and studied clothing design. However, wanting to be closer to the city and her first love of theater, she moved closer to L.A. to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. She participated in numerous student films, shorts, theatre productions, and even 2011 feature film "Warrior" starring Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, and Joel Edgerton. She later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to follow a modeling opportunity with Urban Talent Agency and while there modeled for companies such as Gold's Gym and Maggie Sottero Bridal.

After a year in Utah modeling and attending the University of Utah studying business, Nicole decided to go back to the mid-west and her Indiana roots to finish college at Ball State University, where she began. She was able to complete a Bachelor's of Arts in Spanish and graduated from Ball State, Magna Cum Laude. During this time she met her future husband, musician and engineer Grant M. Cook, and they were married in South Bend, Indiana on September 15, 2012. Grant also lived in L.A. and had a successful music and song-writing career with several different bands, most notably "Just Gone 6".

Nicole is currently still modeling, coaching girls for pageants, and has a budding career as a writer and plans to write a book in the future. So far, she has been featured on websites such as Forbes.com, MO.com, GalTime.com, and HR.com for her expertise in a variety of subjects, mostly surrounding pageants and/or public speaking.