Success, Scholarship, Service and Style are the four points of the Miss America crown, and they are held high throughout the entire Miss America Organization. Each Miss Mississippi contestant should embody these characteristics and understand what they mean for a titleholder.

“They are to uphold a standard in life as contestants,” Miss Mississippi Executive Director David Blackledge said. “We certainly expect them to be of high moral character and present themselves as ladies in their communities.”

Blackledge, who has been the executive director for 22 years, said all of the girls sign contracts to live a certain lifestyle that guides how they conduct themselves socially, and that is what style is all about.

“We expect them to live a certain lifestyle because they’re under contract to do that,” Blackledge said. “There are actual contractual obligations of how they are to conduct themselves as a contestant through the Miss America organization.”

For service, the contestants visited the patients at Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children to see who receives the funds they raise.

“All of them have to raise funds for the Children’s Miracle Network throughout the year,” Blackledge said. “They have to raise money to be apart of the local pageants.”

As for success, he said each lady has been successful because they’ve all won pageants to get here, and scholarship is achieved through the pageant, which is promoted as a scholarship program. He said the Miss America Organization offers over $100,000 in cash rewards and over $1.3 million in in-kind scholarships.

While each point has a general definition, they mean a little something unique to each contestant.

For Miss Deep South Abigail Wilbanks, the four points of the crown are something to live by everyday.

“It really shapes your life, the crown, and it’s not only just a pageant thing,” Wilbanks said. “I feel like everybody should take a lesson from the four points of the crown, and even though you don’t do pageants, you can always learn from it.”

She sees success as looking to the future to see what can be done better. Style, Wilbanks said, is about always looking presentable, not just physically, but also having a positive attitude. Her platform, Life after 21, is all about service and the needs of others, and scholarship is just about doing well in school and striving for success.

Miss Natchez Trace Carol Coker agreed with Wilbanks saying the four points of the crown are not just for the pageant world, they’re important in daily life.

“If you’re never crowned Miss Mississippi, you take those characteristics with you the rest of your life, and you apply it professionally, and you apply it through philanthropy and charity organizations,” Coker said.

She says success is relative. Setting high goals and working hard doesn’t necessarily mean that those dreams will be reached because, as she said, “that’s life.” So Coker measures success through the effort of doing your best and being comfortable with yourself and how far you’ve come.