Starkville Student Competes In The Distinguished Young Women Of America Competition

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- It was an evening of celebration in Starkville on Friday as the town turned out for a student headed to a national competition.

Abigail Musser won the Distinguished Young Women of Mississippi competition last year, and now she will be competing with 51 in the national Finals for Distinguished Young Women of America.

Distinguished Young Women is a national program for high school girls that promotes and rewards scholarship, leadership, and talent in young women.

Musser will be competing with 51 other participants looking take home the title, and a win would also come with $100,000 in cash scholarships.

“It’s great, I see myself as a role model where as I didn’t before and I know that there are younger girls looking up to me so,” said Abigail Musser, the 2018 Distinguished Young Woman of Mississippi. “I love the fact that I’m trying to be an environmental engineer and I’m trying to pursue a stem field so, I love that younger girls can see that and say it doesn’t matter if you are a girl and you’re going into a male-dominated field, if you’re passionate about something you can go and follow your dreams and you can be successful if you put your hard work towards it.”

“I feel very excited and very confident that she will meet lots of friends, that she will show people what a nice and outstanding young woman she is,” said Susan Keith, Chairwoman of the Distinguished Young Women of Starkville program. “She is so kind and generous, she’s focused, she’s a leader, she’s fun to be around, and we are just excited for this opportunity for her.”

The national competition will be June 28th through the 30th in Mobile, Alabama.