Saucon Student 2nd Runner Up in Miss Pennsylvania Teen Competition

A Saucon Valley student is celebrating her achievements in a state-wide teen competition that rewards talent, intelligence, fitness and other positive qualities with scholarship money.

Rising sophomore Avia Weber of Hellertown competed Friday night in the Miss Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen 2019 competition in York, Pa.

Although Weber didn’t win the title of Miss Pennsylvania Outstanding Teen, she said she was proud to claim the title of 2nd Runner Up, or third place, and to represent Saucon Valley in the process.

“I am Miss Keystone’s Outstanding Teen in the Miss America Scholarship Organization,” she said. “In this organization we compete in different phases of competition including interview, lifestyle and fitness in active wear (not swimsuit); talent (my talent is a martial arts demonstration performed to the song “Eye of the Tiger”); and evening gown and onstage question.

For being named 2nd Runner Up, Weber said she was awarded more than $900 in scholarships.

She said she also received a Scholastic Achievement Award (for having the best grades), the Spirit Award (equivalent to the Miss Congeniality title) and a Teens in Action award that was presented to the contestant who does the most work with their platform.

According to the Miss Pennsylvania website, “Miss Pennsylvania’s Outstanding Teen is a preliminary to Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, held every July in Orlando, Florida.”

Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Inc. was “organized to encourage positive achievement by helping to nurture and build scholastic achievement, creative accomplishment, healthy living and community involvement of our nation’s young women between the ages of 13 and 17,” the site’s About Page for the teen competition states. “The Miss PA Scholarship Foundation, Inc. awards scholarship to young women on the basis of academic merit as well as civic and social achievement. Candidates also compete in talent, private interview, evening wear/onstage question, and lifestyle and fitness.”

In Pennsylvania, young women interested in the program can compete through various local Miss Pennsylvania organizations.