Several scholarship winners were announced Thursday on the first evening of competition at the Miss South Dakota Pageant.
Cameron Schroder of Huron took home three awards. Each state pageant recognizes the candidate who has raised the most money for the Children’s Miracle Network, a partner of the Miss America program. Miss South Dakota 2015 Autumn Simunek Conrad sponsors a $500 Children’s Miracle Network Legacy Scholarship for the candidate who excelled in a combination of marketing and volunteerism of community service for the Children’s Miracle Network campaign. Schroder was the winner of those two awards, with Courtney Remick and Kaitlin O’Neill as finalists.
Baylee Dittman of Spearfish received the $500 Quality of Life scholarship awarded to the candidate who has fulfilled a legitimate need in their community through the creation, development and participation in a community service project in the area of her platform. Dittman helped raise awareness on sex trafficking and under Senator DiSanto helped set policies in place to protect victims and survivors.
The $500 State Community Service Scholarship goes to the candidate who has demonstrated their dedication to service in their community and state through volunteerism. They must be able to show how their volunteerism helped the community and how they have personally benefited from it. Through her social impact initiative “That’s Garbage!” Cameron Schroder went into over 20 classrooms to teach students about how our consumer habits are having a negative impact on the environment.
Amber Hulse of Hot Springs was the winner of the $1,000 Community Service Award, given for demonstrating exemplary community service. Miranda O’Bryan won the Miss America Scholar Award of $1,000 for academic excellence.
The South Dakota Scholarship Foundation, in partnership with CDI, Inc., of Brookings, supports the idea that development of world class talent in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is critical to America’s global leadership. CDI is sponsoring two $750 scholarships to candidates that display a dedication to the STEM field. The winners were Hunter Widvey and Carly Goodhart. Hunter is a student at Augustana University majoring in biology and internal affairs with the goal of becoming a pediatric oncologist. Carly is a graduate of SDSU with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She hopes to obtain her Doctor of Nursing Practice to become a nurse practitioner.
More information about the pageant is available at misssd.org.
(Miss South Dakota Pageant)