Laura Gonçalves (born February 4, 1989) is a Portuguese-Venezuelan model and

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes sol ...

titleholder. She was crowned Miss Universo Portugal 2011, on July 29 at the Hotel Miragem in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

. She represented Portugal at the

Miss Universe 2011 Miss Universe 2011 was the 60th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Vibra São Paulo, Credicard Hall in São Paulo, Brazil on 12 September 2011. At the end of the event, Ximena Navarrete of Mexico crowned Leila Lopes (Miss Universe), Leila Lopes ...

pageant and made in the Top 10, making it the highest placement for Portugal. Laura was born in

Baruta Baruta (pop. 317,288) is a municipality within the Metropolitan District of Caracas in Venezuela. Geography Baruta is located geographically in the South-East section of the city. Its western limit is the '' Los Chaguaramos'' neighborhood ( ...

to Portuguese parents who were born and raised in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

. She graduated from Academia Merici, a prestigious Ursuline school in 2007. She returned to Portugal with her parents to start

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

and pursue a modeling career. She speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish and English. Laura attended the

New University of Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon (, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capital city, earning its name as the " ...

and lives in

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

References

External links

Pageantfanatic.jimdo.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goncalves, Laura 1989 births Living people Models from Caracas Venezuelan beauty pageant winners Venezuelan people of Portuguese descent Miss Universe 2011 contestants