The newly crowned Miss Mississippi 2015 Hannah Roberts was on her second wind Sunday morning after a late night of interviews and celebrations. With just a few hours sleep, Roberts woke up feeling well rested and ready for her first day as Miss Mississippi.

“Preparation begins today,” Roberts said about the responsibilities that come with her new title and crown.

At Saturday’s competition, there was shock in the crowd when double preliminary winner Roberts’ name wasn’t called after ten ladies left the stage one by one. Fortunately for her, she said she had lost count and wasn’t exactly sure what had happened at first. She was staring at her parents in the audience who were motioning for her to keep smiling.

“They very quickly, thankfully, announced that there was an eleventh, but for a short time I had no idea what had even happened, but I think it was exciting for everyone,” Roberts said. “It’s a pretty rare occurrence for there to be eleven.”

It all worked out for the best according to Roberts. Being the eleventh contestant gave her the time it took to get her ball gown adjusted for the talent competition where she performed Zigeunerweisne Op. 20 on the violin. It took a little more time to learn the technique required to play Saturday’s piece.

“I usually play very fast things and that piece actually encompassed some slower melodic parts, which was different for me to do so I enjoyed that,” Roberts said.

As a child she was a ballet dancer and every year her parents would take her to see The Nutcracker in Jackson, but when they got to the show she would always peak over the railing and watch the string players in the orchestra pit. Soon she began picking out the violin parts in country songs she heard on the radio, and her parents got her in lessons with Gail Fox.

While she has spent 17 years playing violin, Roberts said her favorite competition is interview. She enjoys the anticipation of what she will be asked. It all stems from debating politics with her dad at the dinner table for the past eight years. Meeting new people and expressing her opinions comes naturally to her.

“I think it’s almost an adrenaline rush waiting on what question is going to come next,” Roberts said.

The biggest issue in Mississippi right now is the inclusion of the Confederate battle flag as part of the state flag. Roberts offered her opinion on the controversial issue.

“I think it’s important to realize that if we’re just neutral about a subject and really don’t care either way, why would we want to keep something around that is so hurtful and a reminder of such a horrible time in our history for so many other citizens of this nation,” Roberts said. “That’s just my personal thoughts on it.”

Her platform, Pages of Love, donates books to children in need. She looks forward to expanding the cause all over the state of Mississippi during her year of reign and to getting books donated throughout the state and beyond.

“We’ve donated over 25,000 at this point and they go to hospitals, clinics, children’s homes, counseling centers, homeless shelters, I think we’ve also given them to lots of reading remediation programs that are going on in and around Hattiesburg this summer,” Roberts said.

This year was Roberts second attempt at the crown. She was first runner-up in the 2013 Miss Mississippi Pageant. Last year she did not compete because she chose to spend six months studying for the Medical College Admissions Test.

“I did take the year off because being Miss Mississippi has been a dream, but the end goal of being Miss Mississippi is to get scholarship money to go to school,” Roberts said. “And so that’s really what had to take first priority.”

On an October night in 2014 at exactly 12:01 a.m. she got the news she had been accepted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s medical school and woke up her household with her screams of excitement. Immediately, she began thinking about Miss Mississippi 2015.

Poise was the main thing she wanted to focus on improving for this year’s competition. Roberts had no pageant training until she got involved with the Miss University of Southern Mississippi pageant. There she was trained how to walk and how to look confident.

“That’s something I really wanted to focus on this year because I wanted to feel, and look, even if I didn’t feel, confident on stage,” Roberts said. “The University of Southern Mississippi helped out a lot with that.”

Roberts, a Mount Olive native, moved to Jackson after graduating with a degree in biochemistry in May.

Roberts was admitted on the first try to UMMC’s medical school and will defer one year so she can fulfill her duties as Miss Mississippi.

There is a relatively short turnaround for Roberts who will be compete in Miss America in September.

“The mindset of the whole year was we’re going to prepare as if we are going to Miss America so that in the event that it happens I’ll be ready, or almost ready,” Roberts said. “I’ve definitely been thinking about it since probably October.”

Roberts, 22, has watched the Miss America pageant with her family her whole life.

“It’s a very surreal thing to think about me actually being there and in it myself,” Roberts said.

Four Miss Mississippi winners have won the Miss America title — Mary Ann Mobley of Brandon in 1959, Lynda Lee Mead of Natchez in 1960, Cheryl Prewitt of Ackerman in 1980 and Susan Akin of Meridian in 1986.