17 year old Bret Harte Senior Victoria Nelson is competing for the coveted Miss Calaveras crown.
Victoria, being homeschooled the majority of her years, threw herself into community and high school involvement in her "only year of high school." Though wanting to experience all that trditional high school entails, her drive for the crown came from the heart.
Recently Victoria's aunt Paula, a previous director for Miss Calaveras, passed away. As a young child Victoria remembers talking of the competition with her aunt and the plans they made together for when Victoria was old enough to compete. Prior to her aunt's passing Victoria had told her Aunt she would do this for her. "I want to honor my Aunt" she said "she was and is the greatest influence in my life."
Courtesy photo.
Though the competition was time consuming, "there were a
lot of events and practices but I realized that's how serving the community is," Victoria enjoyed making new friends.
While hobbies include "anything involving the outdoors, playing the piano and violin" and her favorite subjects are math and science, Victoria has far reaching goals of becoming a "cardiovascular perfusionist."
