This past Saturday our seventh African-American Miss America was crowned! Hailing from Virginia, 22-year-old Caressa Cameron dazzled the judges sporting a stunning canary yellow gown, and belted out a show-stopping rendition of "Listen" from the musical Dreamgirls (which earned her a prelimnary talent award earlier that week). This VCU student is living proof that persistence and hard work pays off: she competed for Miss Virginia (MAO) three times before winning the crown. Prior to that, she came in 2nd runner-up at both Miss Virginia USA and Miss Teen Virginia USA. Before venturing into the USA and Miss America systems, she won the title of Miss Teen Ethnic World 2005.Caressa is another great example of the power of perserverance, hard work and continual improvement in achieving personal goals. She joins the ranks of national queens of color who relentlessly pursued their dream of prestigious crowns for 5 + years (i.e. Crystle Stewart - Miss USA 2008, Ericka Dunlap - Miss America 2004, Debbye Turner- Miss America 1990).
There are so many more I could name...but not enough time!
Keep shining, and growing brighter, so YOU can achieve your dream. The tools are all around you.
Congrats to our new Miss America, Caressa Cameron. We know her year of service will be both impactful and inspiring!
With pride,
CB