Miss New York Nia Imani Franklin Has Won the Miss America Pageant
Franklin is a classically-trained vocalist, who received a master’s degree in composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2017 and was awarded a Kenan Fellowship at Lincoln Center Education in New York City. She also studied music composition during her undergraduate years.
”I grew up at a predominately Caucasian school and there was only [a] five percent minority, and I felt out of place so much because of the color of my skin,“ Franklin said. ”But growing up, I found my love of arts, and through music that helped me to feel positive about myself and about who I was.“
Franklin’s pageant platform is “advocating for the arts” and she sang an operatic selection from the opera La Boheme.
She won a $50,000 scholarship along with the crown in the first Miss America pageant to be held without a swimsuit competition.