Distinguished Young Woman of Lincoln County Reagan Whittington is headed to Meridian today to present herself as an accomplished young woman in the 60th annual Distinguished Young Women of Mississippi program.

Whittington will represent Lincoln County as one of the 31 contestants competing for the Distinguished Young Woman of Mississippi title and more than $30,500 in college scholarships at the Temple Theater in Meridian.

Whittington is the daughter of Clay and Traci Whittington of Brookhaven. She will be a senior at Brookhaven High School this fall.

She is a member of the BHS band, BHS indoor percussion, Elite indoor percussion, Junior Auxiliary, Crown Club and the National Honors Society. In addition, she is extremely involved with the Brookhaven Little Theatre. She recently played Amber in the Haven’s production of “Hairspray.”

Whittington currently holds a 4.0 GPA and scored a 31 on her ACT. She plans to attend Mississippi College next year to pursue a career as a historian. She aspires to be a museum curator.

The 2017 Distinguished Young Women of Mississippi program will begin today and run through Saturday. Contestants will be evaluated on scholastic achievement, fitness, self-expression, talent and interview.

Whittington will perform a vocal presentation of “Being Alive” from the Broadway musical “Company.”

If selected as the Distinguished Young Woman of Mississippi, Whittington will compete in the Distinguished Young Woman for 2017 finals in June 2017, held in Mobile, Alabama. There, she would compete for the opportunity to win a share of more than $100,000 in cash scholarship awards, including the $50,000 national title scholarship award.

The Distinguished Young Woman Program (formerly America’s Junior Miss) was founded in 1958 and is the oldest and largest scholarship program for young women. More than 6,500 high school girls participate each year. This program has offered more than $1.1 billion in college scholarship opportunities to young women across the country.