Miss America. The title carries images of waves, smiles and swimsuits. But not for this year’s crown-wearer.She champions needle exchanges for drug users and free condoms in schools, hoping to help prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”I haven’t done any ribbon-cuttings,” said 21-year-old Miss America Kate Shindle. “Standing on a stage smiling and waving doesn’t really help people. Maybe this could help people think about their actions.”Shindle has received criticism for some of her ideas, she said in a speech Tuesday at the Ohio Union ballroom. Similar speeches around the country have occupied the first half of her year-long tour as Miss America.”When I started college, I had a professor die of AIDS,” said the Northwestern University theater and sociology major. “His death was really the first time someone I knew that well died of AIDS.”Shindle, who is halfway through her one-year tour as Miss America, said she has always been interested in AIDS prevention, so her beliefs about needle exchanges and free condoms are well-grounded.”It’s not that I’m unwilling to listen to other ideas, but I have spent a lot of time deciding how I feel about these issues,” she said in an interview after the speech.Shindle’s age allows her to communicate with a younger audience on its level. “I’m a peer. People tend to listen to peers more than older people,” she said.”I’m not telling people how to run their lives,” she said. “But I’m their age, so it might help. There seems to be a new complacency. People think it has become a manageable disease.”Some audience members questioned if AIDS is manageable just because there is medication available.”It’s a quality of life issue,” said 37-year-old Scott Bowmen, who was diagnosed with HIV in November. “People can die from the side-effects of AIDS medications. I know people who have lived with rashes and diarrhea and have finally taken themselves off of the medication.””The impression in society is that [AIDS] is over,” he said.Shindle said because young people are more sexually active than ever before, they are at a greater risk to contract HIV. She gave examples of people who, while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, have unprotected sex with strangers.”It only takes one time to get HIV,” she said.