Holly Ernst (Holly Henderson)

Phillips High School

Class of 1989

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Holly Henderson - Class of 1989 - Phillips High School

First Name	Holly
Last Name	Ernst
Maiden Name	Henderson
Graduation Year	Class of 1989
Gender	Female
City	N/A
State/Province	MN
Country	United States
Occupation	Image Consultant
Married	Yes
Favorite School Memory	Being a part of the PHS varsity girls basketball team our senior year...what a great time in our lives!
About Me	After graduating from PHS, I attended the UW-Madison and graduated in 1994 with my B.A. in Political Science. After college, I moved to Chicago in hopes of finding a job and ended up working for Minolta Corporation selling office equipment. I stayed there for two years and then moved to Minneapolis where I worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep for SmithKline Beecham (now known as Glaxo SmithKline). After two years in that industry, I was recruited back into the office equipment industry with IKON Office Solutions. My husband & I and our daughter Ava (who just turned 4) live in a suburb of St. Paul called North Oaks. We have a lovable basset hound named Toots and a chubby, three-legged cat aptly named Tippy. I met my now husband Matt Ernst when I was just shy of turning 30...we dated for a year, got engaged on our one-year “dating” anniversary, and got married in Dec. 2001. Matt is Vice President of a family-owned company that manufactures & sells machines that size, separate, and grade food such as rice, coffee beans, wheat, grains, etc. We've been able to travel a lot as a result of his job and since it's a family-owned company, most of the time I get to tag along (well, it's a lot harder now w/ a toddler!). Some of the fun places we’ve been able to visit include Hong Kong, Bangkok, Australia, Vancouver, Canada, Dominican Republic, and here in the US—Hawaii, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, etc., so the travel aspect is definitely a huge perk. After getting married, I quit my job at IKON (and I have to admit I do not miss working in the LEAST, ha ha), and then I decided to get back into pageants. I’d continued to compete in pageantry throughout college and represented Wisconsin at the 1993 Miss World America pageant in El Paso, TX, and thought I’d “retired” from pageantry. That it, until I discovered that there are “Mrs.” pageants! In a nutshell, there are basically three “big” pageants for married women (Mrs. America, Mrs. International, and Mrs. United States). They are all similar in that they are pageants, however, the various areas of competition are weighted differently depending on each system (yes, it’s extremely confusing I know!). Most people are unaware that there is a Miss America and a Miss USA—which are two totally different pageants—and the same applies in the MRS realm. I never thought I'd get back into the pageant thing, but it keeps me motivated and keeps me in shape, so what the heck. Plus I love clothes and being on stage...I guess not a lot has changed since high school! HA HA In 2002, I was named Mrs. Minnesota United States, and then in 2003 I won a different pageant called Mrs. Minnesota International ( http://www.mrsminnesota.com ). The first pageant was more of a beauty pageant and then the second one was heavily judged on "platform," which is basically the "cause" the titleholder promotes throughout her year. I'm a Sr. Level member of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center Speaker's Bureau (a local missing children’s organization http://www.jwrc.org ), and I averaged about 2-3 speaking engagements a week traveling across the state of Minnesota promoting my child safety/abduction prevention platform named “Keeping Our Children Safe.” I now sit on the JWRC Board of Directors and plan to continue speaking on behalf of this organization for as long as they’ll have me! In June of 2006, I competed in my final Mrs pageant and had the good fortune (or good luck!) of winning that title, Mrs. Minnesota America 2006. I spent two weeks in Tucson, AZ for the national pageant and was very pleased to place in the Top 12. It aired throughout the year on the WE tv network. I was 9 weeks pregnant when I crowned my successor in early 2004, and then our pride and joy Ava Lee Ernst arrived later that year. She is SOOOO much fun and so darn cute (not that I’m biased or anything)--I cannot even begin to tell you how awesome she is! She looks just like her dad but TOTALLY has my personality (scary thing, huh!?!). Matt and I were just saying how we never knew we could love someone so much. As of now, we only plan on having one, but never say never! Being a parent is the most amazing and rewarding thing I’ve ever done, that is for sure. Now that I’m done competing, I’ve started my own pageant & image coaching business and mainly work with Miss, Teen, and Mrs. contestants. I really enjoy it plus I can do it out of my house, which works out well being a stay-at-home mom! I also do freelance ad design on the side in the pageant industry (I’m self taught) which I really enjoy. Most of all, I love to spend time with my family and friends and will ALWAYS treasure the great start I had as...(read more)