Student Sparkles in Annual Pageant

An RHS student got an opportunity to participate in a competition that not all students get a chance to participate in. Junior Maddy Anderson competed in the Miss Sacramento County Competition. According to Anderson, the competition is more than just a beauty pageant.

“So the Miss Sacramento County competition is a scholarship program so you get to compete with other young women for opportunities to win college scholarships,” Anderson said.

Anderson knew she had to take this opportunity, especially since she was specially recommended for it by her dance teacher. 

“I chose to compete because I actually found out about the scholarship program through Mrs. Steiner, our dance teacher here,” Anderson said. “The director of the organization is actually a Roseville alumni, so she reached out to Steiner than Mrs. Steiner reached out to me.”

Anderson’s preparations for the pageant started months before the competition was held. 

“So as we prepare for the competition we began preparing in like, around Octoberish and we have workshops through the weekends getting us ready for our different things such as interview, talent, we have an on-stage question, and things like that,” Anderson said.

Though, the day of the pageant came up quickly. Being a first-timer, Anderson was feeling lots of emotions going into it. 

“I was really nervous, I think especially because I’ve never done something like this before so it was more as I was excited and nervous,” Anderson said.

The pageant officially began on the morning of February 11th. Anderson had many parts to prepare and perform in order to compete. 

“So the competition began, in the morning we had an interview at a city hall and we had to go in with the judges and we had about a seven minute interview,” Anderson said. “Later on in the day, we had our competition show which consist of an on-stage question, different dances, your talent.”

Throughout the whole thing and currently, Anderson was and is very grateful for her opportunity to compete.

“I think it was a really cool experience, I’ve never heard of this organization, so getting to do this I met a lot of amazing young women outside of this and are really passionate about what they do and their education and it’s really cool getting new opportunities like that, ” Anderson said.

Not only did she leave with experience, she left with new relationships and the breaking of many pageant-world stereotypes. 

“The other girls were actually really sweet and encouraging, I think a lot of people in the pageantry or like competition industry think they’re really petty and just super all about themselves, but a lot of them were really sweet, encouraging, and inspiring,” Anderson said.

Anderson highly recommends the experience to others, and plans on continuing her pageant career in the future.

“I would definitely do it again, we have it going again next year for 2024, so I’m definitely already looking at that competition and I’m excited to be competing again,” Anderson said.