By BENJAMIN KEPPLE
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER – Emily Hughes, who was crowned Miss New Hampshire 2006 on Saturday night in Derry, said yesterday she was "still on cloud nine" after winning the annual competition.
Hughes, 22, of Gilmanton, said she was especially looking forward to the Miss America pageant, for which preliminary competition will start this fall. Yesterday, though, she was still adjusting to the title of Miss New Hampshire. Hughes won a total of $17,500 in scholarship money in the competition, $15,000 of which was from the top prize.
"It's exciting to see all the hard work pay off this year," said Hughes, this year's Miss Winnipesaukee. "I'm not sure it's all sunk in."
It was Hughes' fifth year as a contestant in the Miss New Hampshire pageant, and in each of her prior years, she had won runner-up prizes. Overall, she estimated yesterday she had earned some $60,000 in scholarship money during her five years of competition.
She said the scholarship funds would likely allow her to graduate from the University of New Hampshire next month without any student debt. She will receive a master's degree in elementary education next month from UNH; she already holds a bachelor's degree in family studies from the school.
Hughes describes education as her true calling, something really proved to her when she helped teach second-graders during an internship at Memorial School in Bedford.
As such, it's understandable that her platform also involves education: specifically, the field of character education, which provides children with life skills. According to Hughes, such programs let children learn how to be respectful, deal with responsibility and learn other life lessons along with their academic work.
"That's where character education comes in — it explicitly teaches the students to have the universally accepted skills to succeed," Hughes said.
As for the upcoming Miss America pageant, Hughes is excited about taking part — especially because its format is all new.
For the first time in Miss America history, the audience will get to take part and help pick contestants for the pageant finals, through a week-long reality television series. But the contestants will still have to face the judges in preliminary competition. Preparing for the next round, therefore, will be one of Hughes' top priorities.
"That is something I'm really going to work hard to do," Hughes said.
TKPN
PageantCast Home
Frappr Map
Podcast Pickle Page
Our Feed
One Click Subscribe in Juice
One Click Subscribe in iTunes
No comments:
Post a Comment