Saturday, January 24, 2009

New Mexico Junior Miss follows sister in spotlight

Melissa Hubbell News-Bulletin Staff Reporter; mhubbell@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas For six consecutive years, Los Lunas High School students have won the coveted title of New Mexico Junior Miss.

Taylor Shea Muller, 17, is the 2009 NM Junior Miss as of Sunday, Jan. 18, at the State Junior Miss Competition held at the New Mexico State University campus in Grants.

Shea, as her friends and family call her, won the LLHS competition back in November, taking home awards in two of five categories in which judges evaluate contestants. All contestants are judged for point value on five sections: talent, interview, self-expression, fitness and scholastic. Muller had the highest point value in the self-expression and interview sections in addition to taking home the title.

"I was very excited to win," said Muller "I felt a sense of accomplishment. Everyone put a lot of hard work into it, and one of my goals was to just do my best, and I felt like I reached that goal. It's an honor to represent Los Lunas and New Mexico."

For the talent portion of the competition, Muller performed a samba dance to "Magdalena," a song by Sergio Mendez.

Although she won the self-expression portion of the competition, Muller said that she was most worried about what question she would be asked.

For the self-expression portion, contestants are given a list of potential questions about current events the night before. The day of the competition, the contestant will randomly pick out a question from a box and give her answer in front of the judges and audience.

"It's mostly about how poised you can stay under pressure," Muller said. "But I usually always get the question I don't want."

The question that Muller ended up getting was, in fact, one she said she wasn't most confident answering. She was asked: What changes would you like to see for women in the future?

She answered that she would like to see more recognition for the women who have accomplished so much and more role models to get youth involved.

Although she's happy about the win, Muller said that her favorite part about the competition is interacting with the other girls and getting to know them.

"Having all the memories together is my favorite part. We got really close in just three days. We were all there for the same purpose, we had the same morals and beliefs and we just all wanted the same goals," Muller said.

Muller was awarded a$2,000 scholarship, $1,500 for the title and $250 for each individual section win. The prize for the National Junior Miss competition held in Mobile, Alabama on June 25, at which Muller will compete, is a full-ride four-year scholarship to any college of the winner's choosing.

If she were to win this June, Muller said that she would probably choose to attend Troy University located in Alabama because of its strong communications department. Muller visited the campus a year and a half ago with her sister and said she really enjoyed it. However, Muller said that she's still deciding and that the University of New Mexico is also in her top two choices.

The 2009 New Mexico Junior Miss said she hasn't decided what field to go into yet but that two areas of great interest for her are broadcast journalism and engineering.

Winning Junior Miss titles isn't exactly new to the family, Muller's sister Destinee Muller, 20, was the 2007 LLHS and New Mexico Junior Miss. This makes Shea and Destinee Muller the first sister-pair to ever win both competitions.

"She's really excited for me," Muller said about her older sister. "She's helped me out so much by telling me about her experiences. I've asked her advice on how to juggle everything."

And juggle everything she does. Muller is a fourth year cheerleader at LLHS, a member of the track team, National Honor Society and MESA, a math, science and engineering program.

This is the sixth LLHS girl in a row to win the NM Junior Miss title and the 12th LLHS student to win the title since the program was founded in 1958.

"I want to say thank you to Yvonne Riley (co-chairmen of the Los Lunas Junior Miss program) and all the women who helped her. I feel like she really got me prepared to do my best. She's just really dedicated and puts a lot of effort in, and I would just like to recognize her."

In June, Muller will compete against 49 other girls who also won their state titles.

"I just want to do my best there and just know that I gave it my all and that I can take from it and learn from that experience," she said.

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