BOURBON — The Triton Distinguished Young Woman Board of Directors is proud to announce the seven young ladies who will vie to become the 53rd Distinguished Young Woman of Triton. Tickets to the scholarship program, to be held on Saturday, Oct. 8, can be purchased from the contestants or at the door for $6. Triton’s Performing Arts Center will open at 6:30 p.m. with the program starting at 7 p.m.

The 2016 contestants are:

Since it’s beginning, Junior Miss, now known as Distinguished Young Women, has awarded high school seniors scholarships for their academic and on stage performances. Each contestant is judged in five categories: scholastic achievement, talent, interview, fitness, and self-expression. Before the show a third party tallies each contestants scholastic score based on their GPA, SAT, and level of class difficulty. The day of the show a panel of judges will spend 10 minutes conducting a personal interview with each contestant. During the show the audience is able to enjoy the 90-second talents, fitness routine, and self-expression portion of judging.

After all the scores have been tallied during a short intermission, the Triton DYW Board along with numerous local sponsors will award $3,700 in scholarships. Preliminary awards include scholastic achievement, fitness, self-expression, talent, Spirit of Junior Miss, and for the first time an interview award that will honor our late, long time chairman, and the 1975 DYW of Triton, Mrs. Tammy (McIntyre) Sauer. A special presentation will also be made to honor Sauer, the 1969 DYW of Triton Mrs. Cynthia Ann (Askins) Keller, and the 2013 DYW of Triton Miss Breanna Sue Lemler all who passed since the 2016 program. Triton’s 2016 DYW, Alexis Miller, will return to perform a talent, take a final walk, and announce the 2017 winner.

The winner of Triton’s DYW will join other senior girls from across the state to compete for Indiana’s Distinguished Young Women in Kokomo the week of Feb. 12, 2017. The journey will continue for the winner of the state competition at the 60th annual America’s Distinguished Young Women Finals in Mobile, Alabama on June 29, 30 and July 1, 2017. National sponsors include Mobile County, City of Mobile, Wintzell’s Oyster House, Alabama Power Foundation, Master Boat Builders, Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, Encore Rehabilitation, Regions Financial Corporation, the State of Alabama Tourism Department and Alabama RC&D Council. For more information about Distinguished Young Women, visit online. Follow Distinguished Young Women on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Founded in 1958 in Mobile, Alabama, Distinguished Young Women is the largest and oldest national scholarship program for high school girls. During its 59 years of operation, the program has provided life-changing experiences for more than 745,000 young women. Last year, Distinguished Young Women provided more than $1.1 billion in cash and college scholarship opportunities to program participants at the local, state and national level. Previously known as America’s Junior Miss, the program announced its new name in June 2010. The mission of Distinguished Young Women is to positively impact the lives of young women by providing a transformative experience that promotes and rewards scholarship, leadership and talent.