VALDOSTA — She has met Donald Trump already and, Friday night, former Miss Valdosta Amanda Kozak competes for the title of Miss USA.

Kozak is in a rare position. As Miss Valdosta, she won the Miss Georgia title to compete and become the second runner-up in last year’s Miss America competition. Last fall, Kozak competed against 59 young women to become Miss Georgia in the Miss USA competition which is owned by Trump.

Kozak and several other Miss USA contestants recently met with Trump as a group, says Pat Colson, who chaired the Miss Valdosta pageant in fall 2005 when Kozak became Miss Valdosta. Colson keeps in regular touch with Kozak.

“She is very excited to be in Las Vegas and ready to compete,” Colson says.

The Miss USA pageant is scheduled to air 9-11 p.m. Friday on NBC. The competition will be judged by Heather Mills, Rob Schneider, Joey Fatone, Kristian Alfonso, Amanda Beard, Christian Siriano, Shawne Merriman, Kelly Carlson, and George Wayne.

While Kozak has been busy recently preparing for the Miss USA pageant, she has also been dealing with her family being displaced by a fire that heavily damaged their Warner Robins home a few months ago. She has been working part-time with the Georgia Association of Educators, and as a model reportedly appearing in a Subway commercial, Colson says.

As a child, Kozak has recalled in past interviews, she enjoyed pretending to be Miss America. Young Amanda dressed in her mom’s bath robes, wore a pretend crown, carried flowers and acted like Miss America.

“But I never thought as a little girl that I could become Miss America,” Kozak said in past interviews with The Valdosta Daily Times. “I never thought it could actually be a possibility.”

It took more than just imagination and pretend-play to become a Miss America and Miss USA contestant. Hard work has backed the dream.

Born Amanda Hank, her mother, Jolene, was in the Air Force as was her stepfather, Kenneth Kozak. Kenneth and Jolene married when Amanda was 8. Kenneth would adopt Amanda.

Still, with both parents in the military and often simultaneously deployed, once for a year in Korea, Amanda stayed in the states with family friends. With Jolene writing daily, Amanda always felt loved and supported. There were difficulties but Amanda learned self-reliance.

As a child, aside from pretending to be Miss America, Amanda was not involved in pageants. She didn’t seriously compete in pageants until her senior year in a Warner Robins high school. After high school, she enrolled in Valdosta State University, where she studied to become a teacher while continuing pageant competition.

She became Miss Warner Robins and Miss Presidential Pathways, competing both times in the Miss Georgia pageant. In 2005, as Miss Warner Robins, Kozak was the Miss Georgia runner-up. In the fall of 2005, Kozak won Miss Valdosta.

Winning pageants associated with the Miss America competition meant Kozak earned scholarships. Pageants paid for her college education, leaving her debt-free, but busy, at the end of her studies.

As Kozak worked to complete her student teaching at S.L. Mason Elementary School and prepare to graduate, she was also Miss Valdosta preparing for the Miss Georgia competition during spring 2006. Colson and Valdosta Mayor John Fretti worked closely with Kozak, ensuring her pageant work did not interfere with her VSU studies and pending graduation.