Two New Green Mountain Girls Are Selected
By Cookie Steponaitis
|
On April 25th at Barre Opera House, a crowd of over 300 gathered and cheered on their favorites in the quest to become the new 2015 Miss Vermont and Miss Vermont's Outstanding Teen. When the interviews, lifestyle/fitness, talent evening wear and on stage questions were all done and tallied, two new faces join the list of 71 who have earned the titles and have served Vermont at the Miss America Contest in Atlantic, City and the Miss America's Outstanding Teen in Orlando, Florida. Twenty- three year old Alayna Westcom, who hails from Bakersfield, Vermont was selected as Miss Vermont 2015. Alayna is a graduate of the University of Vermont and Bay Path College. With a platform of Success through Stem: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Westcom is a medical examiner by day and spends a lot of time in Vermont schools promoting for young people careers in STEM. "As I visit schools," explained Miss Vermont 2015, " I continue to see a drop in interest for STEM careers compared with when I was in elementary school. Richard Riley, the former Secretary of Education reminded us all that " We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't even exist... using technologies that haven't been invented... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."
Joining Westcom is newly crowned 2015 Miss Vermont's Outstanding Teen and Addison County resident Sophia Parker. The sixteen year old is s sophomore at Vergennes Union High School and Parker's platform is Stewardship of the Land: Promoting Wildlife Rehabilitation. The new titleholder shared, "No matter your race, color, creed or set of beliefs, we are all bound by our use of the land, water, animals and resources. We are all inhabitants of planet Earth and so we are bound by the fate of that planet. We have the capability to become stewards of the land or simply consumers of nature, as we all share one irreversible reality."
The pair hit the ground running with their first stop at the Vermont Maple Festival in Saint Albans less than ten hours after being crowned and the following day by appearing on WCAX News Show The 30, to be interviewed by host Gina Bullard. The Valley Voice salutes the two new Green Mountain Girls and congratulates each on the scholarship money they won for college as well as the year of service that will now take them to all counties in the state and to the national stages of Miss America in Atlantic City and Miss America's National Teen in Orlando, Florida.