Miss Michigan<\/a>.<\/p>\nYoung has grown up in Hope Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Forks. \u201cShe\u2019s a wonderful young woman,\u201d says pastor Paul Knight, who encouraged her to attend a recent leadership event sponsored by Willow Creek Church.<\/p>\n
Her father, Dana, and mother, Kim, have been active in the congregation. \u201cMy parents are the most amazing people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Young is a music student at North Dakota State University and hopes to eventually be a professor of musicology. Her passions for singing led her to participate in a local pageant. \u201cI was taking voice lessons \u2013 music was always the biggest part of high school for me \u2013 and my teacher said it would be good experience for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Young was shocked when she won and eventually advanced to be the runner-up of the state contest last year before winning this year. Her reasons for participating changed along the way, however. \u201cThe Lord really gave me a new perspective on why he wanted me there,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s to be a light for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was made especially clear to her during the week of the most recent pageant. Young prayed with another contestant who had suffered a family tragedy. To her own surprise, Young began crying with the young woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have never cried before,\u201d she says. \u201cTo have the Lord put a heart of compassion in me to cry with someone is an amazing experience. He blessed me throughout the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now she hopes God will bless others through her during the coming year. By promoting her platform, Young hopes others won\u2019t suffer the way many students (herself included) have because of bullying.<\/p>\n
Young was never physically bullied, but was teased terribly as a child. Those emotional scars stuck with her. \u201cI was in fifth and sixth grade when it really started to hit me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my life has been trying to build up confidence in myself,\u201d Young says. \u201cI was tormented by the ghosts of my bullies. That was a very painful thing for me to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending college in another town has helped her face the ghosts and overcome the pain, she says, adding that she believes God will redeem her experience by using it to help others.<\/p>\n
People often think of bullying as a physical act, but Young says, \u201cWhat\u2019s harder to see is the emotional bullying.\u201d She notes the growth of cyber bullying, in which people use the Internet to make fun of other students. \u201cSome kids will always use whatever is at their disposal so they can bully,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n
Young hopes to fight bullying by helping students \u201csee the innate value of the person next to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She knows a lot of people will be looking to her as an example. \u201cIt\u2019s a really humbling experience to be a role model,\u201d Young says. \u201cThat\u2019s an incentive for me to stay in the word.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young recently spoke with Miss Michigan, Kirsten Haglund. \u201cIt was exciting. I can\u2019t wait to meet her.\u201d Both of them will compete in the national contest to be televised from Las Vegas in January.<\/p>\n
Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stan Friedman GRAND FORKS, ND (August 29, 2007) \u2013 What Ashley Young saw sickened her. A group of teenagers at her high school had knocked down a physically challenged student who hit his head against the wall. When the offenders received what she believed was too little punishment, she wrote a letter to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Stan Friedman GRAND FORKS, ND (August 29, 2007) \u2013 What Ashley Young saw sickened her. A group of teenagers at her high school had knocked down a physically challenged student who hit his head against the wall. When the offenders received what she believed was too little punishment, she wrote a letter to the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\"},\"headline\":\"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/wp-includes\\\/js\\\/tinymce\\\/plugins\\\/wordpress\\\/img\\\/trans.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/\",\"name\":\"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/wp-includes\\\/js\\\/tinymce\\\/plugins\\\/wordpress\\\/img\\\/trans.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/wp-includes\\\/js\\\/tinymce\\\/plugins\\\/wordpress\\\/img\\\/trans.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/wp-includes\\\/js\\\/tinymce\\\/plugins\\\/wordpress\\\/img\\\/trans.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/2007\\\/08\\\/29\\\/5800\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/\",\"name\":\"Covenant Newswire Archives\",\"description\":\"Evangelical Covenant Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/newswire\\\/author\\\/covwebster\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives","og_description":"By Stan Friedman GRAND FORKS, ND (August 29, 2007) \u2013 What Ashley Young saw sickened her. A group of teenagers at her high school had knocked down a physically challenged student who hit his head against the wall. When the offenders received what she believed was too little punishment, she wrote a letter to the […]","og_url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/","og_site_name":"Covenant Newswire Archives","article_published_time":"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8"},"headline":"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota","datePublished":"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/"},"wordCount":672,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/","name":"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota - Covenant Newswire Archives","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif","datePublished":"2007-08-29T17:10:03+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-08T19:37:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/08\/29\/5800\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Grand Forks Covenanter Named Miss North Dakota"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/#website","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/","name":"Covenant Newswire Archives","description":"Evangelical Covenant Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/author\/covwebster\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10201,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10013\/revisions\/10201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" "\\"More...\\""){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2007\/08\/Miss-ND.jpg\" "\\"Miss-ND\\"")
Now, as the new Miss North Dakota, Young will spend the next year talking with students and other people around the state as she promotes her platform, \u201cStop Bullying in Schools: Saving the Spirit of a Child.\u201d<\/p>\n