Meghan Cahill, the reigning Miss Altamont Fair, is competing to be Miss New York.

“I am the first ever Miss Altamont Fair to take my title to the state level,” said Cahill. She added that states in other parts of the country have long let women with fair or festival titles compete but the Miss New York Pageant is allowing those competitors for the first time this year.

The Miss America Organization requires entrants to have a platform. Cahill has titled hers “Man I Feel like a Woman: Empowering Women through Self Defense.”

A rising senior at The College of Saint Rose, Cahill recalls an experience from her first year at the college that led to her passion for self-defense. She was walking to her car, parked a block away from her evening class, when she heard footsteps behind her.  “His steps were getting faster and closer,” she said.

She thought about calling for help on her cellphone but then figured, in light of a rash of recent cellphone robberies, that wasn’t a good idea. “I thought reaching for my cellphone would increase my chance of being attacked,” said Cahill.

She turned to face him. “He had his hood up and was looking right at me,” she said. “I’m fumbling for my keys. I wasn’t trained then and didn’t have them out,” Cahill recalled. “I said, ‘Can I help you with something?’ He stopped dead in his tracks.”

She got in her car and saw her hands were shaking.

“I feel passionate about self-defense,” Cahill concluded. “I never want to be scared and helpless again.”

She studies Krav Maga at Empire Martial Arts in Colonie.

“It’s for people of all ages,” she said of the real-world self-defense regimen developed in Israel. “It’s not sports oriented like karate or taekwondo. We do real-life drills.”

For the talent portion of the Miss New York Pageant, she will do a self-defense medley. “I do moves like punches, groin kicks, and roundhouse kicks,” she said.

She also said, “I love the Miss America Organization. I plan to compete until I age out at 24.” She recites what she calls the “four ‘S’s” of the organization: style, service, success, and scholarship.

“It empowers women,” Cahill said. “I grew up watching Miss America and Miss United States on TV and thought I’d give it a try.”

She will join 28 other women on June 4, 5, and 6 on Staten Island, competing for the Miss New York title. Traditionally, Cahill said, the pageant has had 10 finalists. This year, there will be 11 as the pageant has started a People’s Choice vote.

Supporters may go online to missny.org/2015-pc to vote for the candidate of their choice.

Cahill was on the 2013 Albany Tulip Court, which ended in May, and thought she’d compete in her first pageant, at the Altamont Fair, last August.

“It’s clearly changed my life,” said Cahill, a Guilderland High School graduate. “I’ve reached so many people with my defense platform.”

She named officials she’s met, including Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, State Senator George Amedore, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and county Executive Daniel McCoy.

“We talked about how to bring awareness that violence against women won’t be tolerated. It’s so easy to make an off-color joke,” she said. “Albany is in the forefront on so many issues, we need to  lead on this.”

Cahill has taught self-defense moves at her college as well as given lessons on bystander intervention. She also had an information booth at a Take Back the Night event in Albany.

“I spent the whole year getting out the word,” she said.

She also carved out time for her studies in social work. She hopes to have a career as an emergency-room social worker and had an internship at Albany Medical Center this year that helped her understand the job.

“You’re dealing with people in crisis,” she said. “Sometimes the doctors are so busy, they don’t communicate. You can counsel the family and make them more comfortable.”

She concluded, “You keep both sides happy.”

The message at the bottom of her emails is a quote from Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”