Miss Haiti Raquel Pelissier wearing Giannina Azar, a Dominican-Lebanese designer

Following her first runner-up finish in the Miss Universe pageant, Raquel Pelissier of Haiti was hoping that many doors of opportunities would open for her.

But for now, the 25-year-old Pelissier said she would focus on finishing her Master’s Degree in Scientific Research in Optometry and Vision, hoping to find a cure for blindness.

“My priority right now is to finish my Master’s Degree. I just have to present my thesis, which is about the regeneration of the optic nerve, a project to cure blindness,” Pelissier said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ Pinky Webb.

Miss Haiti said one of their project experiments had failed but this failure, she said, would not stop her from trying some more.

“That is the life of a scientist, you fail every day. But you just have to know that it’s gona be like that. You can fail, fail, fail, but there’s going to be one experiment that can be the one. You can’t be demotivated,” she said.

According to the Miss Universe website, Pelissier, a survivor of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, is a quadrilingual who “enjoys reading a good book and going to museums.”

The part-Filipino beauty queen, considered by many as a dark horse in the competition, was heavily cheered by the audience at the Mall of Asia Arena after her answer in the final question round and moments before the winner was announced.

The Miss Universe crown was eventually won by Iris Mittenaere of France, who succeeded the Philippines’ Pia Wurtzbach.

In the final question round, the finalists were asked by host Steve Harvey about a lesson they learned from something they failed at, to which Pelissier answered: “About seven years ago I survived the earthquake. I think I’m failing myself and I was not living my dreams, yet I chose to be a very positive person and I learned a great lesson. If I am here today it is because I am living my dreams.” JE/rga