Be
Distinguished
sweet
stuff
AUM offers the
Chancellor scholarship
(which is $8,000 per
academic year for four
years) to the winner of
Alabama’s
Distinguished Young
Women program.
Distinguished Young Women is a national program, but it is
actually homegrown. It was founded in Mobile in 1951, where
its headquarters still reside. It is the largest and oldest national
scholarship program for high school girls and throughout its history has provided more than $93 million in cash scholarships
at the local, state and national levels. In addition to cash scholarships, Distinguished Young Women participants are eligible
for college-granted scholarships from almost 200 colleges and
universities, totaling more than $108 million last year.
The Alabama competition is held in Montgomery in January
each year, with 52 girls competing.
“We don’t want to make it about the one night on stage,” Wynne Wages, the Lee County Chairwoman said. “We make it about
a self-improvement experience for the girls.” This includes events
focused on health and wellness, interview workshops and more.
“We really want to give them skills they can use in life, so if they
walk off stage and didn’t win a single award, ‘they can still say
they have learned and grown.” LEARN MORE AT AJM.ORG.
Financial Aid for a Bright Future
also working hard to be physically fit and learning a healthy lifestyle that
will serve them well in their future,” Miles said.
Another plus to pageants is the chance to win college scholarships. Most
Lindsey Sexton, Miss Alabama United States 2012, echoed Miles.
pageants include some scholarship money in their prize packages. In
“The major benefits I have taken away from pageantry are the interview
DYW, scholarships are awarded to the overall winner, local winners and
skills that I have achieved. When I have a job interview it’s no biggie for
category winners. The level of scholarship is dependent on donations
me anymore. Before I started participating in pageants, I was always so
from the community, but according to Wynne, these donations have
nervous about job interviews or even speeches
increased greatly in the last few years, and Troy
at school,” she said.
State gives large scholarships to its local particiAfter Miss Alabama Heather Whitestone
pants who have the right grades and a certain
was crowned Miss America in 1994, the
ACT score. “I w