Mallory Carol Mackenzie, Choctaw County’s Distinguished Young Woman, will be traveling to Meridian July 8th to compete in the state program for the title of Mississippi’s Distinguished Young Woman. The Distinguished Young Woman Program is the new title for the Junior Miss Program.
Mallory will be one of 30 Mississippi high school seniors competing for more than $28,900 in college scholarships when the 2019 Distinguished Young Women of Mississippi Program gets under way Thursday, July 12, in Meridian.
The state program, which is held in Meridian, is now in its 62th year celebrating and spotlighting outstanding achievements of the state’s best and brightest high school girls. The three nights of competition in The Evangel Temple Church concludes on Saturday, July 14. Curtain is 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday.
Mallory is the daughter of Stuart and Kim Mackenzie. She will be a senior at French Camp Academy where she is involved in numerous activities. Her academic accomplishments, membership, and hobbies include: President’s List Scholar, Beta Club Member, Varsity Tennis French Camp Academy, Mexico Mission Team, and Beta Club National Convention in Living Literature She plans to attend Mississippi State University to pursue a career as a High School Guidance Counselor.
Preliminaries for the state program will be Thursday, July 12th and Friday, July 13th. Mallory will compete in talent one evening and Fitness and Self-Expression the other evening. She has chosen an Acrobatic Lyrical Dance presentation of “This Is Me” for her talent.
Finals for the top ten selected in the program will be held Saturday, July 14th. It is at the end of this evening’s competition that Mississippi’s Distinguished Young Woman will be announced.
If selected as Distinguished Young Woman of Mississippi, Mallory will compete in the Distinguished Young Woman for 2019 finals in June of 2019, held in Mobile, Alabama. There she will compete for the opportunity to win a share of more than $100,000 in cash scholarship awards, including the $50,000 national title scholarship award.
Distinguished Young Women, formerly America’s Junior Miss, was founded in 1958 as a way to reward the accomplishments of high school girls seeking to pursue higher education. This organization is the oldest and largest scholarship program for young women. More than 6,500 high school girls participate each year. Past AJM participants include Diane Sawyer, Debra Messing, Deborah Norville, Julie Moran, the late Mary Frann, Kim Basinger and Kathie Lee Gifford.
If you would like to purchase tickets for the preliminaries and final night, you may contact Kimbo Floyd at (601) 693-5353. Mallory can also receive best wishes in the form of cards, letters, e-mail, and flowers to her in care of:
Mississippi’s Distinguished Young Woman Program
Choctaw County’s Distinguished Young Woman- Mallory Mackenzie
P.O. Box 582 2400 8th Street
Meridian, MS 39302
Mallory’s e-mail address for the week will be: 15mallorymackenzie@msjrmiss.com.
There will be a “Trunk Show” for Miss Mackenzie at the Choctaw County Library on Thursday, July 5th, at 6:30. The Choctaw County Distinguished Young Woman Program is sponsored by the Twentieth Century Club, who hopes that everyone will support Mallory by writing letters, e-mails, and attending the trunk show.
