When Julia DeSerio graduated from Gardner-Webb College and got employed as choir director at Crest Center Faculty, she assumed she’d arrived.
Rising up in a two-bed room South Carolina mill home with 4 siblings, she had a perception of pleasure for what she’d attained, however it’d occur with a price tag.
She’d racked up $50,000 in student personal loan credit card debt, but like most, she planned to chip absent at it.
A nudge from a mentor from higher school brought up an notion DeSerio hadn’t regarded. Why not get a shot in a pageant that provides scholarship money?
That considered has led to two crowns in 4 many years and second runner up in the Pass up North Carolina Pageant.
“Any possibility for me to get up on phase and sing, I like to do that,” she explained. “To do that, get paid scholarship revenue and give back to the group that has approved me, I was just hooked.”
Because there was not a Pass up Shelby Pageant, DeSerio reported she entered the Miss out on Gastonia Pageant in 2019, and gained.
“I went into it not realizing what would come of it, and I finished up successful,” she said.
She also now retains the title of the longest Pass up Gastonia in historical past mainly because COVID canceled pageants in 2020, and she was requested to hold the title until eventually the following competition.
DeSerio stated she held the crown until finally January 2022.
“I touched 4 calendar a long time which is insane,” she reported.
DeSerio figured her pageant times ended up more than. She’d aged out. Then, the organization elevated the age by a year which made her suitable with 6 months to spare.
She didn’t straight away toss her hat in the ring for another title.
“I just did not believe I was in a position monetarily and timewise to do this yet again,” she reported, introducing that she prayed about it prior to creating a ultimate decision. “(God) opened every single door for me so wonderfully and so purposefully.”
In January 2022, DeSerio was topped Overlook Sandhills.
Both of her wins sent DeSerio to the Miss North Carolina level of competition.
Her initially vacation saw her make the last 10, and she introduced household $10,000 in scholarship revenue.
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As this year’s next runner-up and winner of the pink-carpet award, she was awarded around $20,000. Individuals items will assist her appreciably lower her student personal loan personal debt, she mentioned.
DeSerio stated the Miss American business has also supplied her a opportunity to offer neighborhood service and mature by way of skilled development and networking.
When parents of some of her pupils observed out she was entering pageants, not all people accredited, DeSerio said.
But she believes she brought them around, spreading the word that the group is about much more than what comes about on phase.
“I don’t believe they realize what Miss out on American has come to be,” she said. “To grow to be much better men and women via this software and other systems has become a quite unique piece of this as perfectly.”
DeSerio’s reign as Miss out on Sandhills ends in Oct.
Diane Turbyfill can be attained at 704-669-3334 and [email protected].