Miss Mississippi wins STEM scholarship
Published 10:46 pm Saturday, September 12, 2015
Locals made their way to Atlantic City earlier this week to cheer on 2015 Miss Mississippi Hannah Roberts during the 2016 Miss America Pageant preliminary competitions. On Sunday, the remainder of her supporters will have the opportunity to watch the final night of competition beginning at 8 p.m. on ABC.
“The crowd is responding great to her (Hannah Roberts),” Karen Jones said.
Jones serves as the business manager for Miss Mississippi.
On Wednesday night, Jones said Roberts was named as one of the five STEM scholarship winners.
“I have been a STEM nerd since kindergarten so I was very excited when the Miss America Organization started to have a focus on STEM. I was awarded a $5,000 scholarship after being named a finalist and this is a great honor,” Roberts said.
Roberts, who is a native of Mount Olive, was named first runner-up to Miss Mississippi in 2013. She returned in 2015 vying for the Miss Mississippi crown and won.
While competing in Atlantic City, Jones said Roberts has been having a fun time.
“It’s been such a wonderful opportunity, and I have made friends and memories to last a lifetime. The girls involved with this organization all have lofty goals and dreams, and we find commonality in this drive,” Roberts said.
During the first night of the preliminaries Miss Iowa Taylor Wiebers, was named talent winner for her vocal performance of “Don’t Forget Me” from the musical TV series “Smash.” Miss South Carolina Daja Dial was Tuesday night’s preliminary Lifestyle and Fitness winner. 2015 Miss Louisiana April Nelson was the talent winner in the second round of preliminaries with “Climb Every Mountain” from the musical “The Sound Of Music,” and 2015 Miss Florida Mary Katherine Fechtel was the preliminary Lifestyle and Fitness winner.
During the final night of the preliminaries Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell, was named talent winner for her operatic vocal performance of “Tu Tu Piccolo Iddio,” and Miss Iowa Taylor Wiebers was the Lifestyle and Fitness winner.
This year marks the 95th anniversary of the 2016 Miss America Competition.