Who is Tara Schiphof? All about Miss Georgia 2023

Tara Schiphof, a 25-year-old from King, North Carolina was crowned as Miss Georgia 2023 on Saturday, June 17, 2023, after defeating 57 other contestants. The Grand Finale of the pageant took place in the Pageant Venue River Center of Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia.

Apart from being crowned Miss Georgia 2023 Tara Schiphof was also given a sash, a title, and a scholarship of $25,000. The reigning Miss Capital City was crowned by her predecessor Miss Georgia 2022 and the reigning queen Kelsey Hollis.

Tara became the 21st state winner of join the class of Miss America 2024 and will be representing the state of Georgia in it. Interestingly, this was her second time participating in the Miss Georgia Scholarship Competition. Last year, she was declared as the first runner-up.

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Tara Schiphof is a classical ballet dancer

Tara Schiphof is a North Carolina native who was born to Melanie Oakley and Chris Schiphof, both of whom still live in their native town of King. As a girl, Tara attended Mount Olive Elementary School followed by Chestnut Grove Middle School. She won the prestigious Stokes County Arts Council Scholarship that allowed her to go to high school and later to college.

Tara graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in classical ballet in 2019 from the University of North Carolina School of Arts. In 2020, she also pursued a Master of Science in Management Program from the Wake Forest University School of Business. She was part of the university’s dance group.

In fact, Tara Schiphof has been dancing since her girlhood. From performing with Dance Perfections to showing her exemplary ballet skills in Stokes Stomp, King Fest, and Walnut Cove Festival in her hometown, she has done it all.

She moved to Georgia for her work as a marketing specialist with Stanley Black and Decker. It was here that Tara Schiphof, at the age of 23, win the Miss Macon contest, her first in the state.

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Miss Georgia 2023's community service initiative is called #YesYouCan

The winner of Miss Georgia 2023 stood out from others due to her community service initiative called #YesYouCan. It revolves around overcoming the negativity that surrounds the concept of failure and giving it a brand-new meaning.

In her winning statement, Tara said:

“With #YesYouCan, I’ve been able to provide scholarships to students and help others develop the skills to persevere through life’s greatest challenges. I really want to change the way that we view failure and turn it into an opportunity for growth rather than something we should fear."

She added that one of the most beautiful parts of her initiative is that everyone, regardless of their age, background, and demographic can relate to it and benefit from it.

She added that she intended on spreading it across schools across the Peach State. Tara also credited her self-perseverance as the reason behind her win and said:

“At 11 years old, I truly understood the importance of perseverance because I actually competed in a competition and it took me nine years before I was able to win. It taught me how to fail gracefully and achieve with humble intentions. It helped me understand why the journey is so much more important than the destination.”

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Miss Georgia Teen 2023 was crowned on the same day as Miss Georgia

While Tara Schiphof won the Miss Georgia 2023 competition, the first runner-up was Miss Spirit of the South Julia DeSerio. They were followed by Miss Atlanta Audrey Kittila as the second runner-up, Miss Cobb County Ludwidg Louizaire as the third runner-up, and Miss West Georgia Taylor Burrell as the fourth runner-up.

Miss Georgia Teen 2023 was also crowned the same evening. Cobb County’s Charlie Key was the winner.

As mentioned earlier, Tara will be joining the class of Miss America 2024 as she represents the state of Georgia. Miss America 2024 will be the 96th edition of the pageant. The official date and location of the event has not yet been announced.