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Miss North Carolina
Miss North Carolina speaks to girl groups at school
The Daily Reflector
Friday, February 22, 2008
Pitt County’s Girl Power groups got a visit Thursday from one of the state’s best examples of hard work and perseverance.
Miss North Carolina Jessica Jacobs visited with the groups at Wellcome Middle School.
“The two things that make us — as young ladies — as powerful as we can be is education and the ability to serve others,” she said.“That is what Miss North Carolina and Girl Power is all about.”Girl Power, a mentoring program launched by the U.S. Department of Human Services in 1996, is directed locally by Mallory Gravatt of Pitt County Communities in Schools. Groups at six middle schools meet after school once a week to learn, study and participate in community service. Wellcome’s program, which hosted Thursday’s visit, is the largest of the group.Jessika Bowden, a seventh-grader at A.G. Cox Middle School, was very excited to meet Miss North Carolina during her visit.“She is nice,” Bowden said. “She just seems down to earth.”The room of about 75 girls broke into loud applause when Jacobs entered. The girls listened as she spoke to them about her “Read to Me” literacy program, the community service part of her run for Miss North Carolina and Miss America, where she finished as fourth runner up.They asked her questions on topics ranging from fingernail polish and shoes to graduate school and riding in limousines.Jacobs attends graduate school at N.C. State, where she is also a public speaking instructor. She took the year off to serve as Miss North Carolina, compete in the Miss America pageant and travel across the state to festivals and speaking engagements.She said her favorite part of being Miss North Carolina is visiting schools.“It is really a blessing for me,” she said. “Especially the questions and answer. You learn so much about young people from just talking to them. They have so much energy and you pick it up.No matter how far I travel, it is worth it when I get to a school and meet a new group of kids.”Jacobs travels constantly. She will travel to Lee County, Buncombe County and Transylvania County this week alone.“You only get to be Miss North Carolina for a year, so you pack it in,” she said.After the local event, the girls huddled around Jacobs for nearly 30 minutes for autographs and photos.Each group performed a skit or a cheer for Miss North Carolina during the program. The girls from E.B. Aycock included a step routine, and the girls from A.G. Cox read a poem about the importance of Girl Power.“It shows us self-respect,” Bowden said. “It teaches about how to grow in life.”Bowden said the girls at Cox visit nursing homes, send packages to soldiers and meet weekly to talk about their lives.Jacobs said the Miss America pageants have evolved from the old days where the focus was mainly on appearance. Miss America is the largest provider of scholarships to women in the world, she said.Scholarships were her motivation for entering pageants in the first place. She entered 10 local or regional pageants before winning.This, she told the girls, is a lesson in perseverance.“I am looking forward to all the great things you will do,” she said Nevin DaryaniResearch and Evaluation SpecialistCISNC
