By: Phoebe Harris
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The Miss America Competition began on the boardwalk of Atlantic City in 1921. Since 1921, Miss America has been one of the country’s most recognizable household names, and the organization serves as the number one provider of scholarship assistance for young women in the nation. The 2023 Miss America winner, Grace Stanke, was awarded over $68,000 towards her educational expenses through her participation in the Miss America Organization.
Arkansas provides more scholarship assistance at the state competition level than any other state in the nation, due to sponsors from across The Natural State. Many young ladies in the state have been able to further their education due to these earnings. Destiny Quinn, former Miss Arkansas top 10 finalist and now pageant judge, said she has seen the benefit of this assistance firsthand.
“My best friend was Miss Arkansas,” says Quinn. “It paid for almost all of her pharmacy school, so truly this whole organization is about scholarship, and that’s what we’re passionate about.”
However, you don’t necessarily have to be a state or national titleholder to experience the benefits and earn scholarships. Scholarships are awarded at the local level for the winners and runners-up, as well as for garnering the highest score in any of the five phases of the competition. Ryann Grubbs, local titleholder, has been to the Miss Arkansas competition twice now and is a full-time agriculture teacher. She says it has inspired her seeing younger girls obtain further education because of this assistance.
“The scholarship money that they’re winning at a young age that they can carry into their undergraduate programs is life-changing,” says Grubbs. “It’s going to change where they go to school and whether or not they get student loans. And if they can get their undergrad debt free, that’s the biggest award any girl could receive.”
All competitions are composed of five parts: private interview, talent, onstage question, evening wear, and physical fitness. These scores then compile into an overall composite score which determines the winner.
There are roughly 45 local preliminaries in the state of Arkansas each year, all offer opportunities for young women to garner scholarship dollars.
Miss Arkansas has had three state titleholders go on to be crowned Miss America: Donna Axum (Miss America 1964), Elizabeth Ward (1982), and Savvy Shields (2017). The Miss Arkansas pageant is held each year in June at the Robinson Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. This year, Arkansas’s representative for the national pageant is Cori Keller of Stuttgart, Arkansas. Keller is a graduate of Arkansas State University. A new Miss America will be crowned January 14, 2024 in Orlando, Florida.
Arkansas has three natives competing in the pageant: Cori Keller, Miss Arkansas; Madison Marsh, Miss Colorado, who attends college in Colorado; and Miss New York, Amelia Collins, who attends NYU.