Miss Missouri Simone Esters is second runner up in Miss America competition

Thursday, December 19, 2019 7:52:00 PM CST in News By: Skylar Webb, KOMU 8 Reporter 

COLUMBIA - As the school semester winds down, most college-aged students have crammed for finals and rushed home for the holidays --- but not 20-year-old Simone Esters.

After being crowned Miss Missouri 2019 in June, Esters has spent the first half of her school year volunteering, travelling 15,000 miles in her car for various appearances and preparing for the job of Miss America. Esters said the Miss America Organization has been a dream of hers for some time now.

Esters was named second runner-up in the Miss America competition Thursday night.

“I had always watched the Miss America competition on TV and thought it was something I was interested in, but I knew that if I made the decision to compete, I wanted to give my 110% effort,” Esters said.

Two years ago, Esters decided she was ready to try things out. She went to her first local pageant and swept the competition, sending her on to perform at Miss Missouri in Mexico. Esters walked away with second runner-up to the 2018 Miss Missouri.

“At that point, I was extremely motivated and decided to compete that following year, which is the year I ended up winning the title,” Esters said.

After Esters won her first title, the Miss America Pageant System underwent controversial changes by removing the swimsuit portion of competition. This is something that only drove Esters to continue competing.

“I had decided to compete because of the scholarship opportunities and the way it empowered women to be successful in all facets of their life,” Esters said. “When I look back on that, I believe that the changes that became of Miss America 2.0 really were best for me and highlighted what this organization had to offer to all women and how that would help better me as an individual.”

Esters said there is much more that goes into competing in pageants than what meets an audience’s eye. She has dedicated a large portion of her time to her social impact initiative—a cause each contestant chooses to promote and volunteer throughout her reign. Esters’ personal initiative is ‘Leave your Mark,’ which stands for mentor at-risk kids.

“What I aim to do is increase both the quality and quantity of mentors in the state,” Esters said. “Mentors were a very informative part of my life growing up and I want to ensure that all children who might not have that support at home, are able to get that through a mentor as well.”

This means Esters travels to schools across Missouri to stress the importance of mentoring and works with civic groups like Big Brothers Big Sisters to help match mentors to at-risk kids. She also spends a large portion of her time working with the Miss America System’s national platform, Children’s Miracle Network.

On top of appearances and volunteering, Esters is perfecting her on-stage talent of baton twirling, a sport she’s been mastering since she was just 5-years-old.

“For me, it’s bigger than just the testament of the talent I’m performing on stage,” Esters said. “It’s the different coaches that have invested in me to help me get to my baton twirling and the way I am, the dedication that I’ve put in throughout the years.”

She says the talent portion of competition, as well as the importance the Miss America System places on scholarships, is what really sets this pageant system apart from others and makes it unparalleled. Esters said she doesn’t know of any other organizations that offer the winner of a national title $50,000 worth of scholarships.

Esters said her journey to Miss Missouri was unlike many of her competitors as she isn’t originally from the state of Missouri. Ester’s travelled from Pennsylvania to the University of Missouri School of journalism to further her education. This means she knew no one and had to build the connections she did to make Missouri feel like home.

“That was one thing I really talked about in my interview for Miss Missouri because how can someone that isn’t even really from the state, be adequate representative?” Esters said. “I don’t think it’s the physical location that makes a place feel like home, it’s the people and the support systems that you have while you’re there.”

Esters will spend a week prior to the Miss America live competition attending rehearsals and competing in preliminary phases of competition. While she hopes to walk away with the national title of Miss America, she says her work in Missouri isn’t over after the competition is.

“The job won’t stop for me and my motivation won’t stop for that.” Esters said. “In January, is National Mentoring Month, so I plan to kickoff a campaign to really highlight all that work that I’ve been doing thus far and hopefully then recruit more mentors and help the pre-existing mentees that we have.”

http://www1.komu.com/news/miss-missouri-simone-esters-competes-in-miss-america-competition