“There’s two of us,” said Laura Matrazzo, Miss North Carolina 2018, to a student also wearing a tiara in a first-year nursing class at Beaufort County Community College. The student was celebrating her birthday. Laura Matrazzo was there to deliver a donation and to speak to students about financial literacy. She attended a meeting of the BCCC Foundation Board meeting on Jan. 15, where she delivered a check for $1250 on behalf of the North Carolina Educational Scholarship Fund to help with student scholarships.

Since being selected Miss North Carolina, Matrazzo has traveled the state on a year-long state-wide speaking tour. Each year, tens of thousands of Miss America volunteers give numerous hours of service to more than 12,000 community-service projects.

“I wear many hats, but I get to wear this hat all of the days,” Matrazzo said, referencing her tiara. On her tours, she stresses the importance of financial literacy to students.

“The earlier that we could introduce financial skills, the better,” Matrazzo told the BCCC Foundation Board. “It is so important that your students have the ability to learn to manage their finances. It’s not easy when you’re an adult and things start kicking you in the pants.” She said that she used the scholarship associated with the Miss North Carolina title to pay off student loans that she took on for college.

BCCC Foundation board member David Clegg also serves as county manager for Tyrrell County. He serves as president of the Sisterhood of Miss North Carolina and as secretary of the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Foundation.

As an official state preliminary associated with the Miss America Organization, the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Pageant is a part of the largest scholarship providing organization to women in the world. Today’s Miss North Carolina Organization is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young women to achieve their personal, professional and educational goals. The dedicated young women who compete for the coveted Miss America title donate more than 500,000 hours each year to make Miss America one of the largest community services organizations in the country. Previous Miss North Carolina titleholders have gone on to accomplish great things in all aspects of their lives from business to family to community, embodying everything the Miss America Organization represents.