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Draper Journal

Queens with cause: Draper royalty honored for their service

May 08, 2019 03:39PM ● By Michelynne Mc Guire

Alexsys Campbell, Miss Draper; Mayor Walker; and Grace Mead, Miss Draper’s Outstanding Teen, in a mock interview. (Photo courtesy/Stephanie Mead)

By Michelynne McGuire | [email protected]

On April 16, the Draper City Council honored Alexsys Campbell, Miss Draper 2018–19, and Grace Mead, Miss Draper's Outstanding Teen 2018–19, for their year of service.

As their reigns come to a successful completion, these intelligent, beautiful and driven young ladies will take with them what they’ve accomplished, the skills they gained and the friends they made and continue onward and upward in their determined pursuits. 

Campbell of Draper, now 21, was crowned Miss Draper in 2018 and will be competing in Miss Utah this June. One of the things she has really enjoyed was getting the chance to serve the community.

“I realized how much I could do,” said Campbell, adding talent and scholarships are important, but she fell in love with service.  

Campbell, whose been known to voluntarily tutor her peers in physics, has been competing in various pageants from the early age of 13; she was also Miss Draper’s Outstanding Teen in 2012. Being dedicated to service, she’s been looking for more opportunities to serve.

And she found them, winning Miss Legacy, Miss Deseret, Miss Eastern Utah and her most recent accomplishment of Miss Draper.

“A lot of the time I found that I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to serve as just Alexsys, as opposed to Alexsys Campbell, Miss Draper, so (pageants are a) really good platform for doing service, it’s a really great stepping stone,” said Campbell.  

Campbell thoroughly enjoyed the service to her hometown of Draper and surrounding areas.

Some highlights were Draper Days, working with the Children’s Miracle Network, assisting with community events working with the special events coordinators of Draper and utilizing her title to support in any way.

Campbell and Mead share a sisterly friendship, so when Campbell had the opportunity, she attended dance company events Mead was performing in. 

“That’s what I really like about the Miss America Organization, is that it is a stepping stone into service, into sisterhood, into politics if you want it to be that way, into spring-boarding a talent,” said Campbell. 

When Campbell and Mead speak about one another, they both comment on how they look at one another as friends and sisters. 

And not only do they get along great with each other, but Campbell and Grace have both made friends with girls they’ve competed against in the program. 

Campbell gets dinner with girls she’s met through the program, who are now close friends, and they spend time together when able. 

Campbell is busy taking online classes at Western Governors University so she can work full-time, pursuing a degree in business. She works as an office assistant during the week, in addition to the necessary preparations for the upcoming pageant this June. 

Alexsys Campbell, Miss Draper, in sash and crown. (Photo courtesy Maddie Sumsion)

 

Mead, 15, was crowned as queen in her very first pageant in April 2018, in Miss Draper’s Outstanding Teen. She wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect from being in the program at first.

“This has been the most amazing year of my life,” she said.

A peek into the daily routine from the shoes of Miss Draper’s Outstanding Teen: she balances being an honor-roll student, now a freshman in high school, and she’s on the dance team, but still made time to educate others about her platform.

Her platform is: “Bright futures begin with STEM” (science, technology, engineering, and math).

“I really took it to heart to post on Instagram and Facebook and reach out to people involving my platform, finding things to post each day,” said Grace, who speaks fluent Chinese and has been to 11 countries.   

Before Grace won her crown, she took initiative to apply to be an ambassador for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Utah STEM Action Center, becoming the first high school student to be accepted.  

“Prior to Grace they only selected college students,” said Grace’s mother Stephanie Mead. 

With the future predicting to have many open STEM jobs, and seeing the importance of getting more girls interested in a growing STEM industry, this is an important topic to Grace Mead. She said many girls tend to lose interest in STEM subjects. 

According to Grace, “The loss of interest in STEM topics as girls age is attributed to not having a real-life role model and encouragement to persist in the fields.”

Grace saw firsthand the impact having a role model can have on someone’s life — her interest in becoming a biomedical engineer can be greatly attributed to a female guest speaker who spoke to her math class at school about working as a biomedical engineer.

She’s been able to work on her social initiative within the program, and as an ambassador in multiple ways.

“We are working with teachers, school administrators, parents, students and communities to publicize resources, programs, grants and scholarships available to students, encourage ongoing interest and remove barriers in these fields,” she said. 

Her work earned her the CenturyLink and NBA STEM Excellence Award, which she received at a Jazz game in recognition of her raising awareness for her “Bright futures begin with STEM” social media campaign. 

 She recently competed in Miss Utah’s Outstanding Teen Pageant in March, where she won 4th Attendant, or also known as fourth runner-up.