MEGAN IRENE COGGINS Megan Irene Coggins of Blacksburg, sponsored by the Blacksburg Women's Club, will be participating in the 2011 South Carolina's Junior Miss this weekend.

Megan won the title of Blacksburg's Junior Miss 2011 on Feb. 20, 2010, in the Blacksburg's Junior Miss Scholarship Program. She will compete in the South Carolina's Junior Miss program July 16-17 in Lexington. If selected as South Carolina's Junior Miss, she will go to Mobile, Ala., where she will participate in the AJM National Finals and compete with representatives from the other 49 states for the opportunity to become America's Junior Miss 2011, a share of more than $125,000 in cash scholarships and college scholarships to more than 200 colleges and universities across the nation.

South Carolina's Junior Miss Scholarship Program is an official preliminary of America's Junior Miss. Since 1958, AJM has awarded more than $92 million in cash scholarships and pro-vided thousands of young women with college granted scholarships to colleges and universities across the nation.

In addition to providing scholarships, AJM challenges each participant to share its national outreach program, Be Your Best Self (BYBS), with young people across the nation. Through BYBS, Junior Misses encourage self esteem and excellence in all young people through the program's five principles: Be healthy, Be involved, Be Studious, Be Ambitious, and Be Responsible.

The 2010-2011 national sponsors for AJM are the City of Mobile and Mobile County. Category sponsors are Alabama Power, Encore Rehabilita-