The 95th MISS America pageant was held to select the winner for the next year.
Grace Stanke, a competitor from Wisconsin, became the third person to take home the top prize on December 15, 2022.
Who is Grace Stanke?
In Wausau, Wisconsin, on April 30, 2002, Grace Stanke was born.
She is a 20-year-old University of Wisconsin–Madison student studying nuclear engineering.
Stanke had held the title of Miss Madison for two years during the epidemic, and in June 2022, she was crowned Miss Wisconsin.
She won the four-day competition held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, in December, when she was named Miss America 2023.
First runner-up was Miss New York, Taryn Delanie Smith, and second runner-up was Miss Texas, Averie Bishop.
Terry Meeuwsen and Laura Koeppeler, both from Wisconsin, also won the Miss America title in 1973 and 2012, respectively.
Stanke succeeds Emma Broyles, the first Miss Alaska competitor to win the Miss America crown, and was given a $100,000 scholarship.
Averie Bishop, Miss Texas, and Taryn Delanie Smith, Miss New York, were named first and second runners-up, respectively.
Terry Meeuwsen from Wisconsin in 1973 and Laura Koeppeler from Wisconsin in 2012 are other Miss America winners from the state.
Emma Broyles, the first Miss Alaska contestant to win the Miss America crown, is now succeeded by Stanke, who received a $100,000 scholarship.
What is Stanke’s talent?
Storm, a movement from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, was played by the classical violinist.
Since he was just eight years old, Stanke has been playing the violin for 12 years.
The Northwestern reported that she “acquired confidence” via competing and performing.
According to Stanke, “(competing) made me feel comfortable in my own skin.”
Who are her parents?
Stanke was conceived by mother Jenny and father Darrin.
Stanke spent her childhood working on building sites in and around Wausau because her father was a civil engineer.
The Miss America winner discussed how her father initially disapproved of her choice to pursue nuclear engineering in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Grace, there’s no future there, there’s no way you should do that,'” Stanke told the outlet. “And I was a spiteful 16-year-old teenager. I said, ‘Watch me.'”
She is said to have been inspired by her father’s treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was a young girl.
Stanke said to The Northwestern that while receiving intensive chemotherapy, he transformed into “a 6-foot, 6-inch teddy bear to a bag of bones.”
She continued, “(Nuclear science) rescued my dad. “What really got me into it was learning about their repercussions and effects,” the author said.
Stanke will go on a year-long national tour to promote nuclear energy and other zero-carbon energy sources after winning the competition.
“As Miss America, I am representing this organization,” Stanke said during one of her responses in the Red Carpet segment.
“If they ask further questions, I am able to preface saying, ‘This isn’t the organization’s point of view, this is my personal point of view as Grace Stanke’ and I can go on to state it — especially when it comes to things like nuclear energy and so many other hot political topics.”