When high school senior Aladrian Crowder entered a contest to be an Essence cover model at a mall in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., last January, she never dreamed that she would be selected out of the more than 7,000 candidates to actually appear on the magazine cover and be offered a $50,000 modeling contract.

As it turns out, Crowder accepted the cover assignment, which ran in August, but turned down the modeling contract.

"It would have demanded too much of me as a student," she said, "especially an engineering student." As a freshman mechanical engineering major at UD this fall, Crowder does do some modeling through a small Baltimore-based agency, but only on weekends.

"I'm trying to be especially careful not to take on too much during my first semester here," she said. "I want to get a strong foundation in school."

Crowder is modest about her accomplishments, but word about her cover modeling assignment has gotten out through her friends, who show none of Crowder's reluctance to brag.

"People come up to me now and ask me if I'm going to pursue a career as a model," she said. "I tell them I'm going to be an engineer. Modeling is just another hobby I have, along with playing the piano, painting and writing poetry."

Originally enrolled in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Crowder changed her major when she realized that she was more interested in the mechanical side of her intended career–biomedical engineering– than in the chemical aspects. Right now, she said she thinks she would like to work on prosthetic development, but she admitted that could change at any time.

"I originally wanted to be a forensic scientist. Then I considered epidemiology, but after I did an internship and didn't like it, I crossed that off my list," she said.

Crowder had to be more than just tall, slim and attractive to win the Essence contest–along with the other finalists, she had to answer some tough questions from a panel of judges. "They were looking for more than just outer beauty," she said. "They wanted someone who also was articulate."

–Diane Kukich