Rising North junior hopes to be Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen

Published 12:00 am Sunday, June 9, 2013

Megan Alyssa Braun, who was crowned Miss Cabarrus County’s Outstanding Teen in November 2012, will compete for the title of Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen June 14-22 in Raleigh.
Megan is a rising junior at North Rowan High School where she is an honor roll student and editor of the school yearbook.
During the Miss Cabarrus County’s Outstanding Teen pageant, she sang “Won’t Let Go” and won the talent portion of the pageant.
Megan will join 32 other teens from across the state at the state pageant. The competition will include fitness, talent and evening gown as well as a private interview and on-stage question.
For the talent portion of the competition, she plans to sing “Titanium” which she had specially arranged by Marc Hoffman of Salisbury School of Music. She chose this song because it relates so closely to her personal platform, which is bullying awareness and prevention.
As a victim of bullying, raising awareness of her platform is particularly important to her. She is one of four national teen spokespeople for the organization National Voices for Equality, Education and Enlightenment (NVEEE).
To spread her message, she visits elementary schools to present the “Not On My Watch” bullying awareness campaign. She held a candlelight vigil at Salisbury’s bell tower in 2011 to remember victims of bullying and she also published a cookbook to raise money for NVEEE. She was a guest speaker at Salisbury Pride in 2012.
Because of her continued work with NVEEE, she has received the Voices of Leadership award and was nominated for the Kohl’s Cares scholarship as well as the Build-A-Bear Huggable Heroes scholarship.
Last month, Megan completed the requirements for the bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh award and will be presented with the medal on stage during pageant week. The Duke of Edinburgh award is a self development program dedicated to achievement in community service, physical fitness, special skills, and adventurous journey.
Megan is the daughter of David and Laura Braun and the granddaughter of Charles and Patricia Wetmore of Salisbury. She has one sister, Mallory, and she works part-time at Wallace and Graham, P.A. After high school, she hopes to attend Catawba College and major in broadcast journalism and communications.