A sash and crown are symbols of hard work, perseverance and leadership for a young woman who has used not only her beauty, but her brains and heart to win the 2005 Miss Black California USA Pageant.

Rochelle Cain of Elk Grove symbolized greatness during this year&s Black History Month, being the pageant&s first winner from Northern California and winning on the basis of what she speaks out against 8211; domestic violence and child molestation.

For Cain, the pageant in Los Angeles last September meant much more than wearing a bathing suit and walking across a stage.

The 25-year-old&s win has carved a path of success for many people to follow.

&My focus is to empower young women and get them to reach for their dreams by setting an example with myself,& Cain said.

The idea to compete came after Cain had received her master&s degree in human resources at National University in Sacramento.

Cain, always looking for a way to better enrich her life, stumbled across a pageant that held more meaning than the rest.

After surfing the Internet for ideas of how to get involved in the community, Cain came across a nonprofit, community service-oriented pageant.

&The pageant stood out for me because it had a cause,& Cain said.

Miss Black California USA was hidden among the hundreds of different pageants that exist in the world.

&From Miss Happy Holiday to Miss Cinderella, there&s everything you can think of type of pageant,& she said.

Cain wasn&t looking for a chance to have her hair and makeup done just right.

She wanted a chance to use her life experiences, education and leadership roles to help others.

This caring attitude began when she was only 7, said Delmer Slaughter, Cain&s mother.

During elementary school, Cain was at a slumber party when one of her friends came to her and said that her brother had been doing &certain things& to her.

&I was thinking that wasn&t right,& Cain said.

Nothing ever materialized from their childhood conversation, but several years later the memory popped back into Cain&s head.

After watching her friend grow up and never do anything about the abuse, Cain decided that type of behavior had to stop.

&It was like watching a movie and not being able to do anything about what was happening,& Cain said.

Now she has been cast in the leading role to promote awareness about child molestation to other children, so they can learn to detect the warning signs.

Cain advocates the difference between a good and a bad touch and words to use like &stop& or &I&m going to tell.&

&That could scare off a predator,& she said. &I want to promote open communication between parents and kids.&

The pageant has opened up many community service opportunities for Cain to get her message out.

She has been volunteering her time at WEAVE (Women Escaping a Violent Environment), an agency that serves men, women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Sacramento County.

Since she won Miss Black California USA, the organization frequently calls on Cain to bring her sash and crown to events that help promote and attract others to its services.

Cain volunteered at &Women Shine Down,& an art show that took place downtown to help WEAVE raise money for its crisis line, women&s shelter and thrift store.

Amber Stott, who works with the agency&s community relations, said she thinks domestic violence and child molestation is an important topic to speak out against and raise awareness for.

&A lot of time those issues get swept under the rug and people keep silent about them,& Stott said.

Stott said she just started working with Cain&s idea to hold a fashion show later in the year, which will donate all of its proceeds to WEAVE.

Cain&s consistent time and energy she puts into community service also extended into a photo shoot that she attended on Feb. 13 for City Flight Magazine in San Francisco.

The photo appeared in the magazine&s feature of a Black Gala, which was held on Friday in the city to recognize the 10 most influential black people for Black History Month, where Cain also planned to deliver a speech.

Her speech would add to the more than 25 other speeches she has given since winning the pageant in September.

Cain said the pageant has really taught her how to be an effective public speaker.

Through her speeches, Cain said she hopes people that have suffered domestic violence or molestation will be encouraged to come forward.

&I want my story to help impact others,& she said.

That&s why Cain grabbed the 2005 Miss Black California USA title, said Kennadie Cobbins, the pageant&s coordinator.

&She was exactly the kind of contestant we were looking for,& she said.

Cain and Cobbins will reunite as Cain plans to head back to Los Angeles to perform for the annual &Vagina Monologues& that Cobbins puts on in March through her scholarship and grant program, the HerShe group.

&She&s a role model by her own ambition and what she aims to do,& Cobbins said.

Cain performed at Sacramento State&s own &Vagina Monologues& on Feb. 18, helping set up scenes that depicted the raping of women in Pakistan and Afghanistan and women living in Africa with no rights.

She said she hopes one day she can travel to countries in Africa to help with their AIDS epidemic.

There&s no doubt Cain will attain her goals to travel to Africa as she has a history of achieving what she sets out to do.

Cain was president of Alpha XI Omicron sorority, a diverse student organization at University of Redlands, where she obtained her bachelor&s degree in liberal studies.

She also ran cross-country and held a student government position while at the college.

Cain quickly had to master the skill of time management, balancing her priorities throughout school and training for the pageant.

&I was going to school, working full time and practicing for the competition,& Cain said.

She trained in belly dancing for the performance she would give during the pageant&s competition, which required three months of preparation, flying back and forth between Sacramento and Los Angeles on the weekends, using her own money.

After winning the pageant and achieving her dream, Cain has set another high goal for herself.

She has started training for the 2006 Miss Black USA pageant, which will be held in Atlanta.

She said she feels that if she wins, it&s her time and if not, maybe she is to fulfill another purpose.

&Everything happens for a reason,& Cain said.