Michaela Kenny of Geneva is now ready to compete at Miss World America 2017 to be held on 13th August in Orlando and the winner will then compete at the 67th Miss World 2017 to be held on 18th November in China.

The 23-year-old Genevan has undergraduate degrees from Clarkson University in biology and psychology and a minor in cognitive neuroscience. She is also a certified emergency medical technician and has applied to serve as an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Department, which is part of the Army Reserve.

In the coming January, she expects to begin studies to become a nurse practitioner specializing in Psychiatry.

There are no state competitions to compete in the pageant. Instead, candidates have to go through a rigorous application process. Now on Monday, she’ll be travelling to Orlando to compete in the 2017 America Miss World competition. The preliminary competition is next Friday, with the finals on Sunday.

Last year Kenny qualified for the event, held in Washington, D.C., which she did not attend. The new pageant organizers have invited her to be a part of this year’s pageant, and she accepted.

This is not the 2012 DeSales High School graduate’s first pageant. She competed as Miss Teen New York in the year 2010 and also earned the title of Miss New York 2016 that gave her a chance to compete at the USA National Miss competition in Boca Raton.

Kenny said that pageant participation has always been a blessing, helping her in areas such as public speaking. “The greatest personal growth I’ve experienced has come through pageantry,” said Kenny, whose myriad skills also include playing flute and piano.

“I definitely want to work in medicine,” she further said, noting her interest in research on how life experiences, such as trauma, may affect our genetics.

But while she loves the research end of medicine, she is looking forward to that career as a nurse practitioner focused on psychiatry.