Becoming Miss America
From little league baseball player to miss america....
Deidre entered the Miss America Organization as a college student, when she began competing in the Miss Alabama Pageant to earn scholarship money. She went to the University of Virginia on a full volleyball scholarship but later chose to give up her scholarship to focus on her academic goal of attending medical school. She entered the Miss Alabama Pageant in her sophomore year of college, competing for a total of 5 years before winning the title of Miss Alabama.
She earned almost $110,000 in scholarship money over the course of her 5 years of participation in the Miss America Organization, paying all of her college tuition and a portion of her medical education.