The Skyliner

The week of July 4 is usually a time to commemorate our country's birthday and freedom, but for three North Greenville students, this will be a week to remember. Melody Pinion, Elizabeth Tate and Brittany Duncan will be competing in preliminary competitions at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, and then Saturday, July 7, will be the final night where the top 10 are named and the new Miss South Carolina 2007 will be crowned.

Pinion, junior theatre, was named Miss Liberty in an official Miss America preliminary. Her platform is "Coping with Dyslexia: The Uncommon Gift."

"I hope to encourage young adults and children to find what they are good at and excel in it," said Pinion.

She explained that children who are dyslexic find school to be extremely difficult and normally suffer with low self-esteem due to this set back. Pinion has been given many open doors due to her title, and will be speaking to the State Board of Educators and will be a guest of honor at the Reading for the Dyslexic and Blind luncheon. She hopes to help students find their gifts and talents as she was "diagnosed with severe dyslexia and I found my gift in the arts."

Tate is a senior business administration major and is competing in the Miss South Carolina pageant as Miss Greenville County. She has a long list of past experiences with pageants; her first pageant was Miss North Greenville College in 2005, where she placed runner up. The following year, Miss North Greenville University became a preliminary for Miss South Carolina, so Tate decided to run, and won. From there she went to compete in Miss South Carolina representing and won the preliminary bathing suit competition and made it into the top ten.

"After last year's experience at Miss South Carolina, I knew that I wanted to compete again, so I entered into the Greenville Scholarship pageant this past January. For me this means another year of hard work that is unbelievably rewarding. Networking yourself as well as your platform, mentoring Palmetto Princesses, community service within the state, and of course preparing for competition in July are just a few of the many things we will be doing during our year as a representative," said Tate.

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