Thursday, July 9, 2009

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Beauty with a purpose By STAFF WRITER ~ Nassau Guardian: In the past month, the words beauty pageants have dominated the print and electronic media as the hunt was on to select the young women who would carry the title Miss Bahamas Universe and Miss Bahamas World — and the furor isn't about to die down anytime soon. One private school has come up with a contest for its female students which will focus on brains rather than beauty, and will offer its queen a free semester of tuition at the institution. The young ladies — Cherice Demeritte, 13, Marion Evans, 15, Kyra Culmer, 15, Kristina Bastian, 16, McKeisha Murray, 17, and Phoebe Scott, 15 — will compete for the prestigious prize, and will showcase their talents and intelligence on Friday, June 19 for the Miss Westminster College title in the school's auditorium. With this in mind, all of the contestants participating are honor roll students who are prefects, class monitors, athletes or active club members, and each of the young ladies have already gone through their photo sessions, and while many feel the winner might be the prettiest or skinniest in other pageants, the judges are looking for the person who exudes the most confidence for the Miss Photogenic title. They've also substituted their swimsuit segment with career wear. They are also introducing a spokesmodel award which allowed the girls to ensure they are ready to execute poise, diction and knowledge about their country and the world when prompted in any setting. Cherice Demeritte, 13, one of the young ladies vying for the crown who aspires to be an attorney, says in addition to focusing on the finding ways to decreasing the crime rate in the country, says she would like to meet the Minister of Youth Sports and Culture, Desmond Bannister, to come up with new after-school program. Marion Evans, 15, has a passion for helping single mothers in the country with their challenges. With the aspiration of becoming an obstetrician, she says she would most like to meet the Minister of Health, Dr. Hubert Minnis, to discuss the current state of health in the nation. Kyra Culmer, 15, aspires to be a pediatrician, and the politician she'd like to meet is Glenys Hanna-Martin because she admires a woman who stands up to speak her mind on serious matters. Kyra would like to focus of teaching kids to read because she feels literacy is essential in life. Kristina Bastian, 16, is focused on eradicating sexual abuse in the country and would love to be a nurse because she has a passion for helping people. McKeisha Murray, 17, says she would like to give back to the community by becoming a Royal Bahamas Defence Force Officer, and she too would like to meet Glenys Hanna Martin because she admires her passion for trying to protect the youth. She would like to create more peer programs at school. Phoebe Scott is a 15-year-old who plans to travel to Honduras as a plastic surgeon with a focus on fixing deformities such as cleft lips because she wants people to feel confident. She wishes to highlight ways to combat child abuse and would like to meet the Minister of Education, Carl Bethel, to discuss ways to fix schools and bring up the national grade average. Monday, June 15,2009