Madi Lietz, a student from McNary, has been dubbed the new representative of Distinguished Young Women of Keizer for the class of 2024.

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“It felt surreal to win. It was shocking and I'm very excited and very honored. I can't wait to continue my Distinguished Young Women journey,” said Lietz.

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Distinguished Young Women (DYW) is a program built around providing opportunities, scholarships, and self betterment skills to young women. DYW follows the Be Your Best Self program and the acronym H.A.I.R.S. (be Healthy, be Ambitious, be Involved,be Responsible, be Studious)

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For the local Keizer program, “Distinguished Young Women of Keizer”, five young women worked and prepared for the showcase to determine who goes onto state.

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“The judging system is individualized to the girl itself, it's not like ‘do we like this girl more than that girl’,” Lietz said, ”When a judge is judging a girl on any of the categories the judge will be on a scale 10 and starts on five and then decides ‘did she do the best she could’.”

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All the numbers from each judge at the end of the showcases go into an Excel spreadsheet and then the numbers get tallied up to find the winner of each category and the overall winner. This is the same system for all showcases from state, to the national level.

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The  judging categories are Academics, Interview, Fitness, Talent, Self Expression, and Spirit. The Spirit category is judged by the showcase’s participants.

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Dayanara won the Spirit and Fitness awards, Siosi ‘Uta’atu won the scholastic award, and Madi Lietz won the Self Expression award, Talent award, and Interview award.

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Dayanara Salvador also won the first alternate award meaning she will replace Madi Lietz if she is not able to participate at the state level.

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(Madi Lietz is a member of the Piper Staff)

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