Camille Schrier is Miss America 2020! The Virginia native, 24, was crowned the winner of the annual competition at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut on December 19 — the first contestant to do so under the organization’s new 2.0 standards. The initiative is an effort to rebrand Miss America and take away “pageant” labels and stereotypes by focusing more on social impact, empowerment, scholarships and goals. In order to implement 2.0, Miss America took away its evening gown and swimsuit portions of its competition and filled that time with opportunities for contestants to speak on behalf of themselves and their social impact plans.
After acing all of the above, Camille will now embark on her 365 day reign as Miss America. She will receive a $50,000 scholarship, along with the opportunity to travel all over the world to advocate for the social impact initiative of her choice. Camille is the official successor of Miss America 2019, Nia Franklin of New York. Check out these five fast facts about her!
1. Camille is a pharmacy student at Virginia Tech. — She has plans to be an empowering doctor. As a lover of science, she described what she does as “creating and developing medicines that can one day kill cancer.” Camille speaks in schools to educated kids on the importance of science, and to inform youngsters that science is fun. She’s shared that she didn’t always fit in because of her “quirky love for science, bugs and dirt.” As a fan of the 2.0 initiative, it’s been her goal to break the stigmas around the typical Miss America. Her mom even wore a white lab coat in the audience.
2. Her competition talent was a chemistry demonstration. — Camille expressed her love her science even further by putting on an experience to show the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which the judges loved. Her mission is to break down the stereotypes of science being something people do not need in their daily lives.
3. As Miss America 2020, her social impact initiative is “Mind Your Meds: Drug Safety and Abuse Prevention from Pediatrics to Geriatrics.” — Camille hopes to educate from pediatrics to geriatrics about the importance of drug and safety prevention. During the competition, she used real life experiences of friends who became addicted to pills, a mom who once gave her child the wrong medication, and a little child who accidentally took his grandfather’s blood pressure medication because he thought it was a Tic Tac.
4. Camille is part of Greek life. — She is a proud member of the Kappa Delta sisterhood.
5. She is a former Miss Pennsylvania. — Camille’s shared photos of her PA title on Instagram, and it appears as though she’s been doing competitions since 2010.