Jemison High School senior Tayler Mazingo was selected to represent the 2014 Chilton County Distinguished Young Women on July 13.

Mazingo will now represent Chilton County in the preliminary to state competition Jan. 10-18 in Montgomery and the state competition in Mobile in June of 2014.

“Hearing my name announced as the winner was surreal because I have wanted to participate in this program since I was 13,” Mazingo said. “I have worked really hard throughout the years to be able to participate in this program so it meant a lot that I was chosen as the representative for Chilton County.”

Top three: 2013 Chilton County Distinguished Young Woman Tayler Mazingo (center) is flanked by Catherine Rowe (left), interview winner and first alternate; and Natalie Peoples, second alternate.

The 53-year-old program is a national scholarship program that encourages high school girls to develop their full potential.

The DYW program differs from some pageants in areas of scholastics, physical fitness and scholarships.

The six girls participating in the program were judged on their GPA, physical fitness, talent and interview portion where they were given 30 seconds to speak about their passion.

Mazingo also won the self-expression and physical fitness portion.

Hannah Jordan won the talent portion of the program with her piano performance and the Spirit of Distingished Young Women; Catherine Rowe was the interview winner and first alternate; Natalie Peoples was second alternate, Lauren Benson was the scholastic winner.

Mazingo said the interview portion did not intimidate her due to her love of talking but she will spend the next few months leading up to the program in Montgomery practicing her interview and talent portions.

The program provides scholarship money for the participants and all of the money used for scholarships is raised. This year $3,450 was awarded to those participating.

Delta Kappa Gamma teacher society collected the donations and contributions on behalf of the contestants.