Former Miss America contestant from W. Islip gets surprise proposal

Jen Corey says she was shocked when she was crowned Miss West Islip in 2004, thinking she’d finish last.

She went on to win Miss DC in 2009 -- weeks after graduating from American University in Washington -- and finish in the top 10 in the following year’s Miss America Pageant.

But the initial surprise of high school pageant success didn’t compare to May 10, when a supposed magazine photo shoot quickly morphed into a dream proposal.

Corey, 26, was set to do a magazine photo shoot with fellow former Miss DC winners for “DC Grrl” magazine at the Newseum in Washington.

The magazine doesn’t really exist. But the love Joshua Baca has for his now-fiancee is all too real.

The shoot was a ruse concocted by Baca -- a 30-year-old vice president of client relations for DDC Advocacy and former senior staffer on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign -- to give Corey an extra-special moment. The whole scene went down on the museum balcony that overlooks the Capitol building. Corey has done actual photos shoots at the Newseum before and says it’s a “beautiful view.”

Baca enlisted the help of Miss DC 1997 Sonya Gavankar, who hosts and moderates programs produced by the Newseum and is the face and voice for many of the Newseum's videos and exhibits, according to the Newseum website. (“We kind of joke that she’s the Mickey Mouse of the museum,” Corey said.)

Corey, who works as an event planner and is pursuing her MBA at the University of Maryland, says she and Baca, who is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, will probably get married next year in Washington after everything went so well for the engagement.

"I was just exactly where I wanted to be,” said Corey, whose mom, Rose Corey of West Islip, flew down to be part of the surprise. “I was in an evening gown with my hair and makeup done overlooking Washington D.C.”