Miss Tennessee Volunteer Preliminary Winners June 21th

On the last night of Preliminary Competition for the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Pageant, Miss Middle Tennessee Valley and Miss Lane College were announced as preliminary winners.

Miss Middle Tennessee Valley, Elise Stein won the lifestyle and fitness categories of the competition. She is the daughter of Everett (Celeste) Stein. When we spoke to her she told us,”I am overwhelmed, ecstatic, and very happy. (This pageant) means everything. I’ve been working really, really hard and to just have the opportunity to speak in front of a whole bunch of kids about what I like. I volunteer and speak about anti-bullying, my platform, Move 2 Stand, so I’m very excited to have the chance to win, it means everything to me.” She is currently a senior studying at Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Public Relations.

Miss Lane College, Shannel DeFoe, was very emotional after her win in the talent portion of last night’s competition. She is the daughter of Raymond DeFoe and Cleynthia Johnson. With tears in her eyes she explained why this win was so important to her, “This means a lot to me. I’m at a HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) so putting this is putting my school on the map. We don’t have sponsorships, we are a private HBCU Institution so winning this preliminary means so much to me.” Shannel is studying business at Lane College and is expected to graduate in 2020.

These young ladies are the last set of preliminary winners in the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship pageant. Today, June 22nd, the 2019 Miss Tennessee Volunteer will be crowned!

Cypress will post updates as the Pageant progresses on our blog and on the story section on Facebook and Instagram.