Seniors Angelyn Tabalba, Angelique Racpan and Megan Garcia represented Sacred Hearts Academy in this year’s Distinguished Young Women (DYW) Scholarship Program, formerly known as the Junior Miss Pageant. The Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Program is the largest and oldest national scholarship program for high school girls.

Distinguished Young Women of Hawaii is an official state preliminary of Distinguished Young Women, a national scholarship program that promotes and rewards scholarship, leadership and talent in young women. In addition to earning scholarships for college, participants develop self-confidence, self-assurance and other life skills that pave the way for future success. DYW has awarded more than $100 million in cash scholarships to participants at the local, state and national levels over the past 57 years.

A panel of five educators, counselors and others evaluated and reviewed participants’ high school transcripts and test scores. Points were awarded based on interview (25 percent of overall score), scholastics (20 percent), talent (25 percent), fitness (15 percent) and self- expression (15 percent).

Academy senior Megan Garcia was third runner- up. She is the recipient of a $1,500 cash scholarship and a $12,500 tuition scholarship to Hawaii Pacific University

Participants were grateful for the experience.

Garcia said, “I am extremely grateful for this experience and would like to thank the judges, my friends that I met from DYW and our coordinator, Ligaya Stice. I am also very glad and happy for the other people who placed and it wouldn’t have been possible without the encouragement from friends and family. It was also really fun learning how to do an interview and getting all dressed up.”

Tabalba said, “It was truly an unforgettable experience.”

This year’s winner, Tianzhen Nie, from Kaiser High School will be the state representative for the  national finals, this year on June 25-27 in Mobile, Alabama.

In 1994 Deborah Kula, Math department chair, accompanied her daughter Raechel as the Hawaii winner of the then-Junior Miss Pageant.

This year’s competition took place in the Academy auditorium on Feb. 8.