Miss America 2023
This week was a very busy week at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, where 51 talented young women gathered and competed for the title of Miss America 2023.
The competition kicked off Monday, December 12, when the candidates started the preliminary competition and private interviews with the judges.
Then Thursday, December 15 the 51 state delegates were narrowed down to 11 the top 10, and America's Choice.
The top 10 were: West Virginia, Nevada, New York, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Oregon, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and Indiana, and America chose Illinois.
America's choice also received a five-thousand-dollar scholarship.
The top 11, performed in red-carpet wear and talent, then were narrowed down to the top 7: Texas, Georgia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Nevada, New York, and Indiana. Then moved on to the social impact initiative portion of the competition, where each candidate gives a short speech on their social impact.
Each candidate spoke so eloquently about their social impact. These topics ranged from Miss Georgia's "Autism Acceptance: A Platform for Change" to Miss Wisconsin's "Clean Energy, Cleaner Future" where she discussed the misconceptions surrounding nuclear energy.
After this phase of the competition, the candidates were again narrowed down, to the top 5: Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin, New York, and West Virginia.
The top 5 were then asked a question by Miss America 2022, Emma Broyles, about what they would do in a situation that Emma actually faced during her year as Miss America.
From here, the new Miss America was crowned, and her runner-ups were named.
4th runner-up, Georgia, received a ten-thousand-dollar scholarship; 3rd runner-up, West Virginia, won a fifteen-thousand-dollar scholarship; 2nd runner-up, Texas, recieved a twenty-thousand-dollar scholarship, and 1st runner-up, New York, walked away with a twenty-five-thouand-dollar scholarship. Wisconsin, Grace Stanke, was crowned Miss America and was awarded a fifty-thousand-dollar scholarship.
The rest of the finalists were awarded eight thousand five hundred dollars in scholarship money, and all other candidates three-thousand dollars in scholarship.
This isn't all of the money Miss America gives out in scholarships, each year the organization gives out over five-million scholarship dollars from the local to national levels.
If you know someone that would be interested in competing for the Miss America Scholarship Organization, you can find more information at MissAmerica.org.
