Carthage College event empowers diverse women to bolster each other, create opportunities

Abigail Davidson, president and founder of the Native American Student Association, performed a traditional dance honoring her roots, while Andre’a Santoyo and Willow Newell, former Miss Kenosha, sang a duet to Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.”

Szyryj said becoming Miss Wisconsin last year was never about the title, the gowns, the make-up, traveling, or Miss America. She did it because she had never seen anyone like herself, a woman whose Chinese roots are mixed with Polish and German ancestry. As a first generation American, it was “both a blessing and a curse,” she said. It was, in fact, about “the representation.”

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