Senior Julia Neuder participated in the statewide Distinguished Young Women competition this past weekend after winning the local competition in Sandpoint last year.

Neuder placed first in the local competition. She won the talent, self expression and interview portions, qualifying her for the statewide competition. For her talent she sang “Don’t Rain on my Parade” from the musical “Funny Girl”.

“My song apparently was pretty good…It was a fun song to sing so it was easy to do emotion and move around the stage,” Neuder said.

In total, there were 37 girls who competed in the state Distinguished Young Women program in Idaho Falls.

It was a week long event with the actual competition occurring on October 6th and 7th.

“We got to do community service projects, days for girls creating reusable feminine products for them so they could go to school, it was amazing,” Neuder said.

Preparation for the competition is strenuous, with rehearsals three days a week starting months before the event date. In this time, Neuder wrote and edited a song for her talent, learned a fitness routine and practiced for the interview and self expression events.

State finalists move on to compete at the national level. Neuder did not advance past the state competition.

“They have literally been training since they were five for this moment,” Neuder said of some of the other girls competing at state.

Although she did not win anything at state, Neuder received a scholarship from the local event last year and participated in multiple community service events.

“At locals I won $4,500… and I got a lot of friends,” Neuder said. “The local girls were really tight and amazing and then at state we all got really close.”