Hampered by a quaint name that harked back to more innocent times and mistaken by gender critics for a mere beauty pageant, America’s Junior Miss (AJM) national scholarship program, founded in 1958, has abandoned its venerable moniker for one that reflects the politically correct times in which we live.
“Our new name not only more accurately describes what the program is all about, but reflects that the scholarship program is still valuable and relevant to the needs of high school-age young women.”
The program’s new name: Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Program.
AJM announced the new name at the National Finals on Saturday, June 26, at the Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, Ala.
The first winner under the new name is Madison Leonard of Idaho.
The beauty contest connotation of the old name had increasingly conjured up negative images for potential supporters, sponsors and participants. Moreover, the program had been hit hard by the recession as corporations cut back on sponsorships. Research and strategic consultation told AJM’s board that updating the name to one that would better mirror the program’s tight scholarship focus would also help appeal both to a larger pool of qualified scholarship candidates and national scholarship sponsors.
“Changing our 52-year-old name for one that is more descriptive of what we do will help the program avoid the image of a beauty contest, which, unfortunately, carries a certain stigma,” Executive Director Becky Jo Peterson said. “Our new name not only more accurately describes what the program is all about, but reflects that the scholarship program is still valuable and relevant to the needs of high school-age young women.”
Since 1958, the AJM organization has provided life-changing experiences for more than 700,000 young women and more than $92 million in cash and college scholarships. The past four scholarship winners attend Northwestern, Stanford and Harvard.
As the Distinguished Young Woman of America for 2010, Madison Leonard, a recent graduate of Coeur d’Alene High School in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, received more than $50,000 in cash scholarships. She also received a gold medallion as a symbol of her excellent achievement in the five categories of judging, including academic performance, talent and speaking skills. Her classroom achievements and extracurricular work include: Key Club, musical theater and tennis. Leonard plans to attend Pepperdine University and study musical performance and journalism.
Leonard was one of the nation’s 50 brightest and most talented of the young women representing all 50 states at this year’s national finals. Participants competed for more than $135,000 in cash scholarships and college-granted scholarships to more than 200 colleges and universities. The young women were evaluated in five categories: Interview (25%), Talent (25%), Scholastics (20%), Self-Expression (15%) and Fitness (15%).
While in Mobile, participants in the Distinguished Young Women National Finals enjoyed some of the city’s finest attractions, participated in community service activities and built lifelong friendships with each other. Sponsors and volunteers from the Mobile community donated their homes, time and services to make this event possible. Sponsors of this year’s event included the City of Mobile and Mobile County, Spanx Foundation, Encore Rehabilitation, Mobile Gas, A Sempra Company, Alabama Power Foundation and Regions Financial Corporation.
Source: Business Wire
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