Auburn University’s Miss Homecoming will be crowned during halftime of the Auburn vs. Samford game this weekend. According to SGA Executive Director of Elections Katie Simeroth, Miss Homecoming is someone who represents the tradition of Homecoming and has an idea of what that means. The title also honors a senior for what they have contributed on campus.
Students can vote for their favorite nominee on Friday, Nov. 18, through Tiger Eye on the Auburn University website from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.
The Corner recently sat down with the five nominees to find out a little more about them:

Haley Bagwell

Hometown: Birmingham
Major: Public Relations
Nominated through: Kappa Delta
Campaign slogan: Keep on Rollin’

How did she feel about being nominated?
“I was shocked, completely shocked,” she said. “Never in a million years thought that I would get to campaign and do all this stuff I’m doing now. It’s still surreal and I’m still on cloud nine.”
Platform: Keep on Rollin’
“It’s an awareness campaign about the Toomer’s trees and the future of them,” she said. “There are options out there and they will be coming to the students for our opinion, among other groups of people. I just want to let students know that they have a voice and they have an option in this and we should use our voice.”
Why she chose her platform:
“I’m the corniest Auburn fan there ever has been and my favorite tradition has always been rolling Toomer’s. When they were poisoned it was almost like we were attacked, but we didn’t fall under that, we rose to the occasion. We rose above it and now it’s just a matter of rising above it even more and moving onto other options to continue the tradition.”
Thoughts on Miss Homecoming:
“I was never in homecoming in high school,” she said. “I was never that girl, I was in the band. It’s just an honor and I don’t want girls to look at this and think that we’re all just pretty faces or we’re all just surface deep. We all have something that we want to bring to the table.”
Fun facts about Haley:
- The city of Haleyville, Ala., is named after her family.
“My mom’s name is Donna Marie Haley and mine is Haley Marie Bagwell, so it is named after her side of the family.”
- “I am obsessed with jumbo Tootsie Rolls!”

Sophie Burge

Hometown: Birmingham
Major: Nutrition
Nominated through: Omicron Delta Kappa
Campaign slogan: S.H.A.P.E. (Supporting Healthy Activities and Pure Eating) up with Sophie

How did she feel about being nominated?
“I was honored,” she said. “I was very excited.”
Platform: Promoting health and wellness.
“Throughout the campaign I basically want to educate people and encourage people to start building healthy eating habits and exercise habits because we can do things now that will pay off much later down the road,” she said. “With having good habits and eating right and living well… the rewards are just so great.”
Sophie said she also wants to get students excited about the health services Auburn University has to offer.
“Auburn is doing a lot of things to help promote health and wellness,” she said. “I think that Auburn provides a great place to practice these healthy habits.”
Why she chose her platform:
“I love to eat and I love people and those are two things that I could combine to work with,” she said. “My mom is a registered dietician so I just grew up around eating well and cooking and being in the kitchen. I love that. I also love to learn. I love to learn about the body.”
Thoughts on Miss Homecoming:
“I think that Miss Homecoming should just be one of the students, somebody that’s very welcoming since Homecoming is a time where we have so many alumni, so many people coming back home. Miss Homecoming should be somebody who absolutely loves Auburn, bleeds orange and blue and will be welcoming to the entire campus.”
Fun fact about Sophie:
- “I have a girl crush on Beyoncé.”

Kimberly Jones

Hometown: Birmingham
Major: Double major in Political Science and Spanish
Nominated through: Pi Kappa Phi
Campaign slogan: Pushing Limits

How did she feel about being nominated?
Kimberly asked the members of Pi Kappa Phi if they would nominate her.
“This was something I could do as a senior and be involved that way and kind of just give back to Auburn,” she said. “I’ve been touched so much by the people I’ve met here that I want to be able to show my love back to Auburn as well.”
Platform: Push America – Program that raises awareness for those with disabilities.
Why she chose her platform:
“In high school I had a love for people with disabilities because we had an organization called PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Support),” she said. “I worked with them and just saw how much love they have for life, no matter what their circumstances were, no matter what they were up against in the world.”
Plans as Miss Homecoming:
“I would like to bring a speaker to educate the Auburn community to learn about how to interact with people with disabilities, and make more sense of the whole situation,” she said. “I would like to follow that up with a volleyball tournament where people with disabilities could participate and raise money for Push America.”
Fun facts about Kimberly:
- “I’m really clumsy. I danced for 15 years and cheered for six and I always seem to hurt myself just by walking.”
- “I can’t burp.”

Laurin Sanders

Hometown: Dothan
Major: Interior Design
Nominated through: International Interior Design Association
Campaign slogan: Auburn for Africa

How did she feel about being nominated?
“I was so surprised. I’m so excited and flattered and honored. I never thought that I would be nominated for something like this.”
Platform: Supporting Mocha Club - A community of people giving up the cost of two mochas a month, or $7, to fund relief and development projects in Africa.
Why she chose her platform:
“I went to Kenya with Mocha Club two summers ago, so I got to see where the money went,” she said. “We got to go to the schools that Mocha Club supports. It was really inspiring to see the joy the kids had to be able to learn, otherwise they would be stuck in the slums forever. The education gives them a little bit of hope. It’s really cool to see that the money really does change people’s lives. And it’s just a little bit for us, but for them $7 gets kids a uniform to go to school, otherwise they couldn’t go at all.”
Thoughts on Miss Homecoming:
“I don’t want to make it all about myself,” she said. “I want to use it for something bigger and to get to know people that I haven’t gotten to know, to promote the homecoming tradition and just have fun and represent the people that nominated me, my friends and the organizations that I’m involved in the best that I can.”
Fun facts about Laurin:
- “I’m terrible at singing, I mean, awful … really, really bad. But I love to sing and so whenever I drive around I sing very loudly. Last week I realized that I was singing, ‘I’ve got friends in low places …’ with the windows rolled down and it was really embarrassing.”
- “My dad spelled my name wrong on my birth certificate. He won’t admit to it, but that’s what it is.”

Elizabeth Williams

Hometown: Dothan
Major: Public Relations
Nominated through: Chi Omega
Campaign slogan: Ask How. Ask Now. Ask Elizabeth Williams.

How did she feel about being nominated?
“I was really excited,” she said. “I was just kind of awe struck when I got it because it’s two of my best friends and then two other really great girls that are in it too.”
Platform: Project Uplift – A big brother, big sister mentoring program.
“It’s when you take children from Lee County that are underprivileged and you do something with them once a week,” she said.
Why she chose her platform:
“I’ve been doing Project Uplift since freshman year, so Madison (her Project Uplift little sister) and I will celebrate our three-year anniversary in February,” she said. “The Sherwin Williams logo (the inspiration behind her slogan) says ‘Cover the Earth’ and I think you can cover the earth by doing Project Uplift because you never know where the kids will end up.
Plans as Miss Homecoming:
“I want to raise awareness about Project Uplift and how great of a program it will be if you put your time into it,” she said. “There’s so many organizations at Auburn that are benefiting, but this impacts yourself and someone else and I think that’s just such a vital part of doing anything. I just want to impact others to want to help everyone.”
Fun fact about Elizabeth:
- “I’ve applied to be on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ three times. I love solving the puzzles.”