Who: Miss Rhode Island 2006; Harvard University Management Fellow

Degree: A.B. ’04

House: Mather

Hometown: Providence, R.I.

Current residence: Cambridge, Mass.

Spotlight: Purple is usually the color of royalty. But Rogers, who has reigned since April, is the ultimate green queen: She entered the Miss Rhode Island contest to promote sustainable living. Rogers will champion “Protecting our Environment for Generations to Come” at the Miss America pageant in January 2007, but she’s already taken to the mean streets of Cambridge to get the job done. She set up ReStore, a program that refurbishes Harvard’s old computers and distributes them to university employees and students in need.

Friends: Laurie Gray ’03, who reigned as Miss Rhode Island in 2003. She also served on the board of Harvard Model Congress with Adam Hornstine ’03, brother of Blair Hornstine, the New Jersey student who sued her school district to be named her high school’s sole valedictorian and later had her admission to Harvard rescinded over plagiarism charges.

Guilty pleasure: "Desperate Housewives"

Dish: Rogers donned a blue bikini for the swimsuit competition and strutted through the pageant’s opening number—a spirited rendition of “These Boots Are Made for Walking”—in a denim miniskirt and cowboy boots. That may just be the price of being a green queen.

In her words: “If we don’t have the air we need to breathe in, if we don’t have a stable climate system to live in, all of those other issues really go out the window quickly.” –Rogers, telling the Crimson why she chose her Miss America platform.