Crowned Miss World 2011, Venezuela’s Ivian Sarcos not so many years ago yearned to become a nun.
Orphaned at age 8, she was raised by the Catholic sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart in the rural town of Cojedes.
Sunday, the 22-year-old accepted her crown from U.S.-born Miss World 2010 Alexandria Mills and reflected on her long journey from a rural South America nunnery to the bright lights of the London beauty pageant.
Born in the village of Guanare, the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters, she lost both parents in separate car crashes as a third grader. For two years, her oldest brother tried to hold the family together, but reluctantly placed little Ivian with the nuns. She told pageant judges that her life’s proudest moment was when she made her First Communion.
“My whole family was together that day, so it’s a moment that I deeply appreciate,” she said.
“My dream was to become a nun,” the beauty queen told reporters. However, she instead decided to accept an opportunity to go to college, earning a degree in human resources.
Although the road to the Miss World title was not easy, she said believes it helped build her character as well as her faith.
“This has taught me that life, although it may be bad, doesn’t have to end badly. Although I no longer have my parents it has taught me to be stronger,” she told the Agence France Presse.
She wants to use her title as a platform to help others. “I am an orphan. I would also like to help the elderly and troubled teenagers. As many people as I can.”
“I believe that the next Miss World should be a woman of responsibility and reason,” she told judges. “Beauty with a heart.”
After being crowned the winner of the Miss World 2011 contest in London, Miss Venezuela, Ivian Lunasol Sarcos has described her victory as a gift from God.
Sarcos, 21, took the ultimate beauty accolade at Earls Court in London on Sunday defeating Miss Philippines Gwendoline Ruias. Puerto Rico's Amanda Victoria Vilanova Perez was judged to be in third place.
“I’m very happy with this triumph. There are no words to express what I feel. I’m super grateful for life,” she said to El Impulso, a Venezuelan publication.
The Miss World 2011 had a unique story when she became orphan at the age of eight and spent five years in a nunnery. According to Agence French Presse, her dream was to become a nun but she later gave up the idea and went to study in the Central University of Venezuela.
“Unfortunately, I lost both my parents at a very young age, which led me to study for five years in a nunnery. I spent five years in there and my dream was to become a nun,” said the new Miss World.
Sarcos believes that the difficult times she went through were worthwhile because God always rewards, reported El Impulso.
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“Believe me I’ve always done well. I think this attitude is related to the blows of life. At some point in life there is a reward, and often when you don’t expect it you receive it. I’ve always been a girl who has done well. I have a super clean conscience and all the bad things I went through were worthwhile because God always rewards one with other things.”As Miss World, Sarcos said she wants to work “extremely” hard to offer the best of herself and make the Venezuela proud.
Miss Venezuela, Ivian Sarcos, reacts as she hears that she has been named Miss World 2011 in Earls Court in west London November 6, 2011.