Miss America: Quality of Life Awards

Since 1988 the Miss America Scholarship program has honored community service with an award called "Quality of Life." To me, "Quality of Life" seems both prestigious and overwhelming, but this year, one of the pageant's youngest contestants was not intimidated. Nineteen year old Miss Idaho, Tracy Brown [center] won a three-thousand dollar scholarship for her efforts promoting Breast Cancer Awareness. Second place and a two-thousand dollar scholarship went to Miss Oklahoma, Jennifer Berry [left], who promotes Preventing Drunk Driving and Underage Drinking. A one-thousand dollar scholarship and the third place honor was earned by Miss Alabama, Alexa Jones [right] for her work in Arts Education.

These three young women rose to the top after a private interview. (This is a separate interview, not the one that is scored and helps select the next Miss America.) Only nine of the fifty-two women were selected to go through this interview process, the semi-finalistist were chosen based on essays every contestant must submit about their platform issues. The other six semi-finalistist were as follows:

Miss Arizona, Audrey Sibley- Prevention of Child Abduction and Exploitation
Miss Florida, Mari Wilensky- Give Me A Break-A Reading Program
Miss Kansas, Adrienne Rosel- Financial Literacy 101
Miss Minnisota, Kayrn Stordahl- Eat Smart, Play Hard: Developing Healthy Children
Miss New York, Kandice Pelletier -Increasing Youth Volunteerism
Miss South Carolina, Erika Powell -Teen Pregnancy Prevention Through Mentoring

For an article, click here; the photo above is from the AP, found here.