After the cancellation of last year’s Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship pageant owing to COVID-19, The Imperial House will host the second edition this year with eight young women competing for the title and the prize of a $400,000 scholarship.
CEO of The Imperial House Wasim Khan said there were no applications for this year’s pageant, the eight contestants to vie for the title had participated in the digital university programme which was hosted last year in place of the pageant.
The digital university was a programme designed as a substitute for the teen scholarship pageant. Of the 41 teens who applied, 16 were shortlisted for the programme. All of the participants engaged in the two-month programme via the digital platforms Zoom, Google Classroom, and WhatsApp. Candidates participated in 16 webinars in three modules: Self-awareness and Value, Professionalism and Etiquette, and Human Rights and Social Development.
The prize up for grabs for the programme was that one of the sixteen girls would be named valedictorian and receive a $75,000 cash grant. The winner was required to put 20 percent of the grant towards a charity or special programme. of her choice. Kriston Smith finished at the top of the programme.
At the end of the digital university programme, 12 of the 16 girls qualified for the finals of the pageant. Khan explained that all 12 girls should have been contesting the upcoming pageant but four will not be participating for different reasons.
The preliminaries include the elocution category scheduled for next Saturday, July 24 at an undisclosed open-air venue where only the contestants, the judges and their parents will be in attendance. Next Sunday the teens will again meet for their official photoshoot. On Saturday August 7, they will compete in the Evening Wear Category and on August 8, the Talent Segment. Rounding up the preliminaries will be the Personality Segment slated for August 21 and 22. Each contestant is also required to self-produce a two-minute video on “dealing with healthy living in the pandemic”. Following the preliminaries, the top three contestants will be chosen and will compete in the final segment ‘Questions and Answers’ and the best one will be crowned the new Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship.
There is no in-person training for the contestants. However, Khan said the Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship team had compiled training videos to guide them. He further stated that for the Elocution Category which targets how well they speak will be based on the topics they undertook at the digital university programme. All of the classes, he noted, are online and available to them so that they can do revision.
Currently, the pageant team is looking for open-aired venues, sponsorship and financial support. So far, Fidel Bassier of 55 Photography is sponsoring all of the official photos. Also on board are BranderZ Guyana and KFC. Khan called on corporate Guyana to support the initiative, adding that the pageant aims to present young women with scholarships for their education. Khan said they will be selling advertising spaces during air time and businesses can come on board.
“I’m very proud of my team, their effort and the passion they share with me to pull this off. It’s been very challenging, we have persevered. I’m happy and pleased that the girls are still here with us and to know that their parents have that confidence in us to make this happen. The girls are excited. We announced it officially to them just last week. We gave them the schedule and let them know that we will be easing them back into the competition,” Khan said.
Some of the contestants in the inaugural Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship in 2019 have committed to mentoring new contestants.
All of the categories will be captured on camera and replayed at a later date and also on coronation night. The preliminaries and the coronation night will be broadcast on the National Communication Network (NCN) and on the Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship and The Imperial House Facebook pages. The team is currently reviewing dates with NCN for coronation night to be hosted live. The date for the finale is likely to be in September.
On September 7, 2019, 18 young women competed in the inaugural pageant and Devya Singh walked away as queen.
