America’s Junior Miss cites vital Christian faith as her source of strength_72604

Posted: 7/23/04

America's Junior Miss cites vital
Christian faith as her source of strength

By Chris Otts

Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. (RNS)–Some parents have trouble trying to tote young children to church. But young Shannon Essenpreis helped get her family focused on faith.

Essenpreis, now 18, said she discovered Christianity at about the time she was a third-grader.

“I actually wasn't raised that way,” the new America's Junior Miss said. “It was in our family, but it really wasn't a big thing.”

But Essenpreis had a diving coach who lived the faith by example and became a role model to her. She and her brother, who was in sixth grade, asked their parents about going to church, and the family began attending Northlake Baptist Church in Garland.

Since then, her faith has been a source of strength, she said. “It's the leading factor in everything.”

Her faith was evident even just before she was named America's Junior Miss 2004 this summer.

“We all prayed when we were out there,” she said of herself and the four other finalists as they waited for the judges' decision. “I'm not sure anyone noticed that–but we bowed our heads.”

Essenpreis' mother, Kim, an aerobics instructor and chiropractic assistant, said she and her husband, Don, have always supported their daughter's interests but never tried to dictate them.

“We always told Shannon she could do anything she wanted,” she said. “We didn't know she wanted to do everything.”

In high school, she was junior and senior class president and prom queen. She was on the track and diving teams as a freshman before giving those up to sing in two school choirs. She also was in several school plays.

As the school's mascot, she donned a giant owl costume at football games. “It was just a fun way to go out and be as goofy as I wanted,” she said.

Her career goal is to be a broadcast journalist. She said she wants to find positive stories and bring them to light.

“There's so many things and amazing people in this world who never get recognized,” she said. “It's mostly the people who do things wrong.”

But before she becomes a news anchor, she hopes to be a Broadway actress for a few years after college. “Which is interesting, because neither of my parents has any musical abilities,” she said. “I don't know where any of this came from.”

Kim Essenpreis said she was confused when her daughter, while in fifth grade, said she wanted to try out for a musical play, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” She said she had no idea of her daughter's gift for song.

“I said, 'Shannon, you know that's a musical,'” Mrs. Essenpreis said. “But she wanted to do it, so I said OK. And then, when she got up on stage, I said, 'Wow, she really can sing.'”

In the fall, she plans to attend the University of Oklahoma, which she picked for its music theater program.

Her father was asked what qualities Shannon gets from him. He said with a smile, “Definitely not her ability to stand up in front of people.”

A system programmer for Texas Instruments, Don Essenpreis said he believes his daughter gets her ability to focus from him.

Mrs. Essenpreis said her daughter shares her optimism and that they have always been close.

“A lot of teenagers distance themselves, but she never did that,” she said.

Shannon Essenpreis said she will stay grounded in her faith while in college by surrounding herself with people who share her Christian values.

“I'm kind of selective in my friends in that way because I would like for them to be a really good example for me, as much as I am for them,” she said.