MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown area teens are prepared to compete in the 2025 Miss Morgantown Pageant for a chance to win scholarship prizes.
The pageant is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 15, at the South Middle School Auditorium, where eleven contestants will compete for six titles as part of the Miss Morgantown and Miss Teen Morgantown pageants. Event organizer Annette Culberson announced that the winners will be selected to take part in the 2025 Miss West Virginia and 2025 Miss West Virginia Teen in the coming months, with all contestants eligible to win cash scholarships and potentially a chance to compete in the 2025 Miss America Pageant.
“The Miss Morgantown Scholarship Organization is a local prelim to the Miss West Virginia and 2025 Miss West Virginia Teen,” said Culberson. “And those winners, who will be competing in June, then go on to compete at Miss America and Miss America’s Teen,” she said.
The women and teens competing in the Miss Morgantown Pageant will showcase their skills and personality in three categories. This includes portions of the pageant where contestants will take part in personal interviews, show off talents, and take part in traditional evening gown and on-stage competitions. Everyone who competes will receive a minimum of $100, which can be used for any expense towards education.
“There’s a minimum of $100 for our Miss contestants,” said Culberson. “Teens are a little harder to go with that, but they can win either scholarships or they can win money towards some of their fees and things going into the state (competition),” she said.
According to Culberson, the winners of the Miss Morgantown Pageant have gone on to attend universities both within the Mountain State and across the country. This includes attendees to the University of Georgia as well as local attendees of West Virginia University and Marshall. Culberson added that many of the teens who are awarded scholarships have also attended colleges in other parts of West Virginia outside of the two largest in the state.
“(Contestants attended) Alabama and WVU, because some of our locals are local,” said Culberson. “We give scholarship money, and they have done to WVU, Shepherd (University), and Marshall, those are our locals that we’ve had,” she said.
The Miss Morgantown and Miss Teen Morgantown pageants have been hosted since 2004 and have contributed over $10,000 in scholarship prizes since their inception. For the 2025 iteration of the event, Miss West Virginia 2023 and Miss America 2023 3rd runner-up Elizabeth Lynch will be on hand as a host as well as 2023 West Virginia Teacher of the Year Amber Nichols. With scholarship prizes and a chance to compete on a national stage on the line, Culberson encourages Morgantown area residents to stop by and show their support.
“They can look for Miss Morgantown Scholarship Organization (on Google) or look for Miss West Virginia,” said Culberson. “Look at the Miss West Virginia Facebook page, and then that will take you to the Miss West Virginia organization, and they can find the website there,” she said.
Tickets cost $10 to attend and are available at the door.