MOSES LAKE — Esther Roeber was selected Tuesday night at Youth Dynamics, 106 E. Third Ave., and streamed online, as the Moses Lake Distinguished Young Woman winner for 2021.

Rebecca Shaporda was the first runner-up, and Laurel Knox was the second runner-up at the event, which also was livestreamed.

“I am very excited and very thankful,” Roeboer said after the program.

Roeber said she focused on self-improvement in her preparation for the program, as she thought that would serve her well. The program is open to high school juniors, and attracted seven contestants.

Roeber said the camaraderie they shared helped them all.

“I had a very awesome group of girls to work with,” she said.

As the winner, Roeber will receive a scholarship, as well as scholarships for community outreach, interview and fitness portions of the program. Shaporda was awarded scholarships for the scholastic, self-expression, talent and spirit of Distinguished Young Women categories.

Roeber will compete in the state program scheduled for August in Pullman. Whether it’s a virtual event or in-person is still to be determined.

She said Wednesday she learned a lot from her involvement in the program.

“Even if you don’t win, you gain so much more (from participating) than if you didn’t do it,” she said.

The individual interview presented the biggest challenge, she said, and preparing for it taught her a lot. She had solid answers to the questions, she said, but she had to work a lot on presentation. Talking to adults is sometimes difficult for teens, and she had to overcome that, as well as learning presentation skills like making eye contact and proper posture.

“When I did my first practice interview there was a lot to be fixed,” she said.

That training will be valuable later, when she’s applying for colleges and eventually for jobs, she said.

Traditionally Roeber, Shaporda and Knox would spend part of their summer representing the Moses Lake DYW program around the state. But whether that will happen this year depends on the status of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Lauren Tolley represented Moses Lake in 2020 and talked about some of her experiences during Tuesday’s program. Her older sister was a DYW contestant, she said, and after watching that process she wanted to participate herself. But the coronavirus outbreak scrambled the program and all those expectations.

Even though the experience was different than she expected it was still great, she said.

“I still had a really amazing experience,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.