Middlebury Senior, Vermont's Junior Miss, To Compete for U.S. Title

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:12:32 GMT

By Emma McDowell

Hilary Swift
Brooke Connor

Most high school students apply for college scholarships by writing essays or filling out paper work. One senior at Middlebury high school however, took a different approach. On January 15th, at Green Mountain High School in Chester, Brooke Connor competed in the Vermont’s Junior Miss program, which rewards the achievements of young women with college scholarships. She won, and now holds the title of Vermont’s Junior Miss. She will travel in June to Mobile, Alabama; the headquarters of the America’s Junior Miss foundation, to compete against 49 other girls for the title of America’s Junior Miss. Judges will evaluate contestants on scholastics, fitness, their response to interview questions, talent, and self-expression. Brooke also will travel throughout Vermont to speak about a foundation outreach program. “It is a thrill to be representing our state on a national stage,” said Connor, who also is student body president of Middlebury Union High School. “I have lots of work ahead of me, but I have the support of past winners, family, friends, teachers, and my community all backing me up.” Among the well-known Americans who’ve held the title of America’s Junior Miss are actresses Kim Basinger and Debra Messing, and television journalists Diane Sawyer and Deborah Norville. The reigning America’s Junior Miss is from Kentucky and attends Northeastern University in Boston. Connor succeeds Vermont’s 2009 Junior Miss, Alexandra Poirier of Colchester. America’s Junior Miss was started in 1958 “to empower outstanding high school women by providing scholarship opportunities, developing life skills, and encouraging positive values; and to impact the lives of all young people through the Be Your Best Self outreach program,” according to the foundation’s Web site. America’s Junior Miss calls its competitions programs, not pageants. That’s because the foundation is concerned with a young woman’s skills, abilities, and inner qualities, not her physical beauty, said Cassidy Grimes, the foundation’s communications director. “Our format is somewhat similar to beauty pageants, but nothing in our program has anything to do with the outside appearance of a girl,” Grimes said. More than 700,000 young women from across the country have participated in Junior Miss programs at the local, state, and national levels. At all three levels of competition, contestants are awarded about $52 million annually in grants and scholarship opportunities, Grimes said. Each state awards its winner at least $500 in scholarships, although most conduct fundraising to provide more. All state winners are entitled to full scholarships at three universities in Alabama, among them the University of South Alabama in Mobile and Troy University in Troy. Along with the scholarships Connor has won, she now is an ambassador for the foundation’s Be Your Best Self outreach program , or BYBS. The program emphasizes five elements: Be Healthy, Be Studious, Be Responsible, Be Ambitious, and Be Involved. She will travel throughout Vermont to speak about the program and relay its message to teens. Connor first learned about the Junior Miss program at age seven. “I remember asking what the girls were trying to win and the response was, ‘College scholarships to help pay for an education’,” Connor said. “Sounded good to me.” When she was watching the program on television, “The girls all looked like they were having fun with each other on stage.” Brooke is no stranger to pageants. She has been competing since she was about 10; she held the title of Vermont’s junior national teenager, was runner up in Vermont’s Outstanding Teen, and was a national semi-finalist in the American Legion Oratorical contest. Connor is one of eight children. In her spare time, she likes to hang out with friends, go to movies, and visit her siblings in Boston and Michigan. She grew up on a farm and is no stranger to driving tractors. Although she may not perform it during the talent portion of the national competition, one of Connor’s skills is changing a tire on her father’s 7700 Ford tractor. “When my dad first put me on a tractor to learn to drive, he didn’t tell me to push the clutch all the way in,” she said. “I pushed it half way, which did slow me down, but I ran into my father’s tractor where he was mowing in front of me. Oh the lessons I learned down on the farm!” Connor intends to obtain a college degree in the medical profession, with the ultimate goal of becoming a doctor in the organization Doctors without Borders.

The Tigers' Print

Middlebury Senior, Vermont's Junior Miss, To Compete for U.S. Title