By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Evangel Classical Christian School senior Mary Grace Long earned a free ride to attend Auburn University, and will move on to compete in a national competition after she won the state Distinguished Young Women of Alabama competition in mid-January.

After winning the Shelby County DYW competition last summer, Long, 18, traveled to Montgomery from Jan. 15-16 to compete against 51 other county winners from across the state.

During the competition, a five-judge panel evaluated the contestants on scholastics, interview skills, fitness, self-expression and talent. Long’s on-stage interview question was “How can the U.S. Congress improve our economy?”

“The questions were chosen completely at random, and she nailed it,” Long’s mother, Drew Ann, said during a Jan. 25 interview. “As a result of all her winnings, she will be able to attend Auburn for free.”

As a result of winning the state DYW competition, Long will now move on to compete at the 59^th annual Distinguished Young Women finals in Mobile in June. There, Long will compete against DYW winners from every state and Washington, D.C.

The national winner will take home $50,000 in prize money.

DYW, which previously was known as America’s Junior Miss, is open to high school juniors across the nation, and has awarded more than 730,000 young women since it was founded in 1958 in Mobile. Last year, the organization awarded more than $367 million in cash and college scholarships to participants at the local, state and national level.

Long began competing in DYW events during her junior year of high school in 2015, and is continuing the competitions this year.

“I’m so proud of her. She has worked so hard,” Drew Ann Long said. “This program is so focused on grades and interview skills. The experience has been beyond what we expected.”