STE Junior Crowned Miss Teen Texas Global

Sophia Ortiz, class of 2019 at Saint Thomas’ Episcopal School, was crowned Miss Teen Texas Global.

Sophia Ortiz, class of 2019 at Saint Thomas’ Episcopal School, was crowned Miss Teen Texas Global on October 29, 2017. From my perspective, she was already a winner before receiving her new title.

This past summer, Sophia was ill and was diagnosed as potentially having leukemia. Miraculously, she improved. After this experience, Sophia decided that she wanted to take action and bring a voice to children with leukemia.

“I started pageantry afterwards and decided that any money I raise or win will go to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital because they helped me and my family. I want to give back to them to show my appreciation for all they do,” Sophia said.

After winning her first title, Miss Teen Houston Global, Sophia began raising money for St. Jude. She was contacted by Dan Parsons, a man from a nonprofit, nationwide organization called the Better Business Bureau, who made a charitable donation towards her goal. This title also gave Sophia opportunities to visit schools, discuss kindness with the students, and volunteer at local nonprofit organizations.

“I volunteered at the City Hope Church when Hurricane Harvey struck and devastated our city.Those volunteer efforts saddened me because I saw all the damage that was left behind, but it also inspired me to see how well we all came together to help each other,” Sophia said.

After battling illness herself, Sophia Ortiz decided to give all money raised from pageantry for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Sophia participated in three competitions for the Miss Teen Texas Global Pageant: an interview competition, swimsuit competition and formalwear competition. During the interview, the judges look for a girl whose personality and ideas stand out as engaging and insightful. For the swimsuit section, the judges look for confidence on stage as well as a toned figure. The formalwear portion is all about elegance and poise in the way each girl carries herself on stage. After all the portions of competition, the judges met and calculated the final scoring of each candidate.

“Having the blessing of being crowned Miss Teen Texas Global United States was a joyous moment because all my work paid off and got me one step closer towards my efforts in helping St. Jude Children's Research Hospital,” Sophia said. She gives thanks to the work ethic she has learned at Saint Thomas’ Episcopal School (STE) which “helped me stay focused and goal oriented.”

“STE has a big part of my heart and seeing the close knit community that embodies our school has really helped open up my heart and to fuel my inspiration to go out into the world to help others,” Sophia said.