KOKOMO — A top-10 finish, a $500 scholarship and friendships.
Trinity Lutheran High School senior Sarah Lemming walked away from the Distinguished Young Women of Indiana contest with those positive experiences.
From Wednesday to Saturday, she was among 25 high school senior girls from around the state competing for the chance to win scholarship money and the chance to be named 2022 Distinguished Young Woman of Indiana.
For making it to the top 10, Lemming was surprised to learn she received more scholarship money to add to the $5,050 she earned in the Jackson County competition.
“From speaking to the other girls about their local programs, I learned that Jackson County had one of the larger programs this year and had more scholarship money to offer than other county-level programs,” Lemming said. “I’m grateful to all of the sponsors and supporters of the Jackson County Distinguished Young Women program, and it was an honor to have even had the opportunity to attend the state competition.”
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the contestants only spent Wednesday to Saturday in Kokomo, which meant they had to cram a week’s worth of activities and rehearsals into a few days.
After arriving at the hotel, all of the girls got dressed up and attended the mayor’s reception dinner, where they met Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore, took pictures with him and listened to speakers as a way to kick off the week.
From there, they spent a majority of the time practicing the onstage portions of the program: Fitness, talent and self-expression.
“We practiced the fitness routine until we had it down and learned how to transition between participants during the individual routines,” Lemming said. “For individuals, each girl would take a turn to come up and perform a specific brief routine while the other girls repeated a pattern of exercises in the background. It was definitely a test of endurance and memorization.”
Self-expression practice involved walking up to the microphone at the right time and answering hypothetical questions so everyone could become comfortable at the microphone.
“We also ran through our talent performances many times and made sure the transitions between were smooth and orderly,” said Lemming, whose talent was playing the violin.
For the other two portions of the competition, interviews were conducted over Zoom on Feb. 13, and judges were given access to the contestants’ school transcripts to determine their overall scholastic ability.
On Thursday, Lemming said the contestants spent more than nine hours rehearsing. In addition, they choreographed and rehearsed the opening dance number, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” complete with zombie attire, and closing dance number, ’80s theme including the song “Walking on Sunshine.”
“With less time, we had to work even harder this year,” Lemming said. “I felt reasonably confident about all three categories but knew I would have to stand out if I wanted to be a finalist. If I lost my focus, I would perform less well, so I had to be sure to focus on each individual aspect of the show.”
The preliminaries were Friday night, and the top 10 moved on to the finals Saturday night at Indiana University Kokomo’s Havens Auditorium.
“I find it to be impressive that I and all of the other participants are not only able to complete a lengthy fitness routine, gracefully showcase a talent and express our opinions calmly but are also able to do these activities in front of a panel of judges and a crowded auditorium,” Lemming said. “It’s important to remember that with the right mindset, performing these can be fun and exciting.”
Lemming said she was surprised to make the top 10.
“Not only were the other participants quite talented and well-rounded, I didn’t perform my best at the preliminaries. I was fairly consistent on fitness, but I struggled with self-expression and talent,” she said.
“I forgot my train of thought during self-expression and had to come up with a new way to continue my idea on the spot,” she said. “During talent, I lost my place during my violin solo and could not restart from any certain part because I had piano accompaniment playing. I completely improvised the rest of it until the piano music stopped playing, then struck a pose and bowed.”
Lemming said when she went back and watched the video of her self-expression question, it looked as though she had paused for effect rather than blanked. Watching the video of her violin solo, she said she realized that because she had continued confidently, her mistake was only obvious if a person knew the song.
“I think the reason I qualified was because I maintained my composure and remained confident onstage, which is a key trait judges look for,” Lemming said. “Participating in finals gave me the chance to greatly improve in each category.”
Winners were chosen in each of the five categories, and the senior with the best overall score won the state title. That was Elizabeth Taylor of Plainfield, who also won overall self-expression.
Even though she only had a few days together with the other contestants, Lemming said she immediately bonded with them and formed amazing friendships.
“It was refreshing to meet so many new people who had something in common with me,” she said. “At the same time, there was a lot of diversity in the group, and we all enjoyed the opportunity to learn about and become friends with people who have very different lives and backgrounds. To me, one of the most important parts of the program is creating unity within diversity and celebrating it rather than avoiding it or attempting to overlook it.”
Lemming also had joined the other state contestants at the state tea Jan. 9 in Kokomo.
“Participating in state was much more than a chance to win money. It was a unique experience, and in a way, it has helped prepare me for college,” said Lemming, who plans to attend Xavier University to major in biology and move on to medical school to become a physician.
“I stayed with a roommate, met many new people and was away from the people in my life and the routine I’m used to for a few days,” she said. “It was a reminder to me that I am capable of stepping out of my comfort zone and that doing so can lead to unexpected and valuable opportunities and experiences.”
Taylor advances to the 65th national program in June in Mobile, Alabama, joining 50 other representatives from across the country in competing for cash scholarships and the opportunity to represent the program as the Distinguished Young Woman of America.
The 2023 Jackson County competition will be conducted in August, and organizers will distribute information to high schools in the spring. For 2022, there were 13 senior high school girls competing, and $13,500 in scholarship money was up for grabs — the most in the 27 years of the program in Jackson County.
On the Web
For information and photos from the Distinguished Young Women of Indiana contest, visit facebook.com/Distinguished-Young-Women-of-Indiana-1533354460255766.
For information about the Jackson County program, visit facebook.com/DYW-of-Jackson-County-Indiana-104955491832143.