Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994 TAG: 9402090025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
What kind of self-respecting beauty pageant is America's Junior Miss, anyway?
The answer is simple, say the people who are closest to the program: It isn't a beauty pageant.
"What we look for is inner beauty," said Larry Poteat, co-chairperson of Virginia's Junior Miss program. "Beauty of face and figure is never judged."
What is judged is scholastic and creative achievement, composure, physical fitness. The prizes are substantial - tens of thousands of dollars in college scholarships - but so are the requirements.
"You have to be really well-rounded," said Nicki Favero, Martinsville-Henry County's Junior Miss. "It's not just a beauty pageant."
Favero is one of 20 young women who last fall won local Junior Miss competitions and advanced to the state contest, which will be held Feb. 18-19 at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The Virginia competition is no newcomer to Roanoke. Held here for nearly 20 years, it was moved to Northern Virginia for several years but returned to Roanoke four years ago.
As at the local level, a panel of educators will score the candidates, all high school seniors, based on grade-point averages and Scholastic Aptitude Test results. With an average SAT score of 1090 and combined GPA of 3.79, the group represents "the sharpest," Poteat said.
The girls also will be individually interviewed by the panel of judges, with discussions focusing on current-events topics that in the past have included health-care reform and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The panel evaluation and scholastic assessment together count for 50 percent of the candidate's final score. The rest of the evaluation is based on a 90-second creative performance, a group fitness routine and a 30-second prepared speech.
The state winner will advance to the national competition, which will be held this summer in Mobile, Ala. The national winner is guaranteed a $30,000 scholarship, with lesser amounts going to runners-up.
The six Roanoke-area local winners - Favero, Rachel Allen, Candace Kanode, Kerri Mikkelsen, Johanna Thompson and Cheri Walters - said Junior Miss preparations have kept them busy since well before the local competitions last fall. Between preparing creative routines and speeches and keeping up with school work, the candidates have had little time to breathe.
In addition, all candidates must report to Roanoke on Sunday for a week of rehearsals. The majority of the week will be spent perfecting the fitness routine, the girls said.
"But it's worth the work you put into it," said Mikkelsen, Roanoke's Junior Miss. "I've been frantic about it, but I should be more relaxed once it starts."
One thing participants don't have to worry about is money: There is no entry fee, and the candidates will stay with host families while in Roanoke. The program provides clothing for the fitness routine and encourages the girls to borrow rather than buy formal gowns.
"We tell the girls, `Don't bring money, you won't need it,' " Poteat said. "If a girl has all of the qualifications, why hold her back because of money?
"We have young ladies who in fact would not have been able to go to school without the scholarships they've won here."
Kelley Orr of Roanoke, Virginia's 1993 winner and now a freshman at Roanoke College, won a total of $11,000 at the state and national competitions. Kristen Huffman, the 1992 state winner, is attending Troy State University in Troy, Ala., on a full scholarship.
"So many people see it as just another beauty pageant," said Cheri Walters, Bedford County's Junior Miss. "But it's much more than that - you can get scholarship money for college."
A senior at Staunton River High School in Montvale, Walters received a $4,000-a-year scholarship from Liberty University when she won the local competition. Many colleges and universities - including Liberty and Troy - offer such scholarships to the young women, providing financial aid in addition to the money given by the program.
The Junior Miss program was started in Mobile, Ala., in 1935, when the majority of college scholarships went to young men for athletics, Poteat said. The founders of Junior Miss saw it as a way to give deserving young women money for college, and although the name of the program has changed over the years - from America's Junior Miss to Young Woman of the Year and back again - its mission has remained the same.
"I just hate to see girls passing up the opportunity to try for this," said Carol Orr, Kelley Orr's mother. "They really want the girls to feel good about themselves. They want this to be a growing experience for them."
Winners have no official Junior Miss duties but are often asked to address school and community groups on the program's motto, "Be your best self." For this year's winners, who remember being in the audience at similar gatherings in the recent past, standing on the other side of the podium has been a strange experience.
"A lot of it is looking up to people who have won in the past," Mikkelsen said. "It's hard to picture yourself as a role model."
"But it makes you feel good that people look up to you," said Candace Kanode, Salem's Junior Miss.
"It makes all the hard work worth it," Rachel Allen, Vinton's Junior Miss, added.
With so much scholarship money available, the funds are spread out among as many winners as possible and the competition, although stiff, is friendly.
"You wouldn't do it if you didn't want to win it," Carol Orr said. "So I guess there's the sense of wanting to accomplish it. But there's not the backstabbing that's so prevalent in some pageants. The girls come knowing that they have these wonderful achievements through high school, but that the others are equal in those achievements."
"It's not just a competition with everybody else," said Johanna Thompson, Franklin County's Junior Miss. "You're competing with yourself."
by CNB