Camille Schrier was crowned Miss America 2020 on 19th December 2019 at Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut. Miss America 2019 Nia Franklin crowned her successor at the end of the event finale.
In an announcement made in the early May 2020, the Miss America organization had announced that the pageant ceremony for Miss America 2021 will be postponed to next year due to the pandemic outbreak in the world. The organization stated it was a unanimous decision made by the Miss America Board of Directors for the ‘safety, health and welfare of the enormous community necessary to make the Miss America competition possible.’ The organization chair Shantel Krebs also stated, “At this time, as an organization, our greatest concern is to make sure the thousands of people who are involved in or volunteer for our program are safe.”
Now, since the pageant is delayed until next year, Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier becomes the first ever Miss America to hold onto the title for two years. The young scientist from Virginia who made history for being the first contestant to wow the crowd with an on-stage experiment during the talent portion of the show, has created yet another history as she will be serving as the queen for one more year.
During her stint at Miss America 2020 she was considered as one of the strongest contenders at the competition and when she won, she stated, “I’m not the beauty queen. I’m the brand ambassador for this organization and I’m more than just someone with a crown on my head.” She been promoting a drug safety and abuse initiative, but since going into quarantine during the coronavirus outbreak, she has launched a Science at Home program. The free online curriculum provides science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content that help both teachers and students between the ages of 6 and 12. Schrier demonstrates two science experiments, including her iconic "elephant's toothpaste" demo the same one she performed prior to winning Miss America — which shows the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.
In one of her posts, she mentioned, “My most substantial quarantine project has been learning how to shoot, perform, and produce science educational content. I’ve learned more about lighting, set design, and post production video editing in the last month than I have my entire life. A fresh batch of lemonade from ALL the COVID lemons! Make sure to check out my YouTube channel for some fun science activities to do at home with your little ones! You might even learn something too.”
The 24-year-old queen who has been working to promote her social cause says that her first year as Miss America was nothing as she imagined and it has pushed her to get creative in order to continue to spread her message or advocacy. She also mentioned that Miss America Organization hasn’t faced anything like the current situation. "This is a hundred-year-old organization, and I'm really the first person who's been faced with this. How can I adapt? How can I figure out how to bring the work that I was doing on the ground, online?", she mentioned.
The diva also feels that her message about drug safety and abuse prevention is very essential need of the hour because she explains that everyone sees STEM in the news every day while fighting COVID. She states, "I think it's incredibly important that all students recognize why STEM is important, even if it's not something that they choose as a career path. It touches every single piece of what we do." She mentioned that talking, raising awareness, and advocating about drug use and abuse prevention is something she is very passionate about and she has been using her time to reach out to people via webinars.
While Camille hopes to eventually have that face-to-face interaction with others down the road, Schrier says she can't help but feel like she was meant to be in this role right now. “I feel like there was divine intervention that made me have to be in this place at this time. "I did not decide to compete in the Miss America organization until the end of March of 2019. I was not a little girl that always dreamed of being Miss America."