For one Marion County young lady, the third weekend in July will be her time to shine.
Abby Morris, a rising senior at Columbia High School, is Marion County’s Distinguished Young Woman for 2019 and will be competing for the state title in Meridian. She is one of 35 who will be going for several thousand dollars in scholarships. The winner will represent Mississippi at the national DYW in Mobile, Ala., for a chance at more than $100,000 in scholarships.
“I am very excited to be doing this,” Morris said.
Morris said she has been busy preparing working out at the gym, practicing her piano piece, which she will do for the talent portion, and studying for the interview. She has different coaches to help her with each section.
Morris isn’t the only one in the family to have this experience; her sister, Anna, was the Marion County 2009 Junior Miss before the program changed names to Distinguished Young Women. Abby Morris said she remembers watching her sister compete.
Morris is the daughter of Steve and Elizabeth Morris of Columbia.
She attends First Baptist Church in Columbia and is the captain of the cheerleading squad at Columbia High School. In addition she is on the tennis and volleyball teams. Morris is hoping to break the record at CHS for serving aces in volleyball. Right now she is in second place with one more year to go.
That athletic experience will serve her well during the fitness portion of the competition, which will be held at the Evangel Temple in Meridian. It involves 8-10 minutes of intense exercising, such as lunges, squats, pushups and jumping jacks. She will also have to go the middle of the group and do 2-8 beat of intense exercise solo showing her individual fitness and balance.
The talent part will showcase nearly nine years of playing piano. She will be performing “Piano Concerto in A Minor” theme from the 1st Movement by Edvard Grieg. The interview section is the portion of the competition is where she is most nervous. Morris said her coach has been preparing questions for her to study and she has a notebook to keep up with current events.
She said there has been an orientation so she has met the other contestants. As for all the events that will be happening, Morris said she is looking forward to activities like the autograph party and the judges’ party.
She will leave for Meridian July 14 and will stay with a host family for the week. Morris said she will most likely speak with her host family ahead of time, but she does not know who they are yet.
“Making new friends that I will be able to keep in touch with, I’m hoping to get interview experience for the future to make me a more well-rounded person,” Morris said of her goals.
Her plans after high school are to attend Jones County Junior College to study radiology technology.
This year Morris was the only one who signed up for the DYW program in Marion County so there was not a pageant. When asked if she was disappointed about not being able to compete locally she responded, “I wasn’t really disappointed; I was thankful that I still had the opportunity to be Marion County Distinguished Young Woman.”
Pictured Above: Abby Morris is Marion County’s 2019 Distinguished Young Woman. The rising senior at Columbia High School will be competing with 35 others for the state title beginning July 14 in Meridian. | Photo by Susan Amundson
