SCITUATE – Scituate’s Rachel Terceira has been awarded Miss American Woman of Service, recognized for her commitment to community and service in Rhode Island and nationwide.
Terceira, 24, who was already Miss Rhode Island Woman of Service, said she is proud to represent Rhode Island on a national level, and excited for what she can achieve.
The motto for Miss American Women of Service is empowering women through community and civic engagement. Terceira, who has a bachelor’s degree in youth development and theater from Rhode Island College, said she most appreciates the community outreach portion of this pageant organization.
“I’m excited to be a part of something bigger than our littlest state,” she said.
Terceira won the private interview, optional, and role model portions of the competition that took place in Portland, Maine, last weekend. For her optional, she performed a speech about women’s rights and health care, a topic she said she felt important yet risky in the country’s current political climate.
Despite being nervous, Terceira said women’s rights and access to safe health care is important to her, and ultimately decided to give the speech.
“If this organization felt the opposite of that, then maybe it wasn’t a good fit for me. It felt even more than a win than winning the crown to win the speech competition,” she said.
For her role model piece, Terceira described the work she did for her organization, Backpacks of Hope, which provides backpacks filled with personal hygiene items for children in foster care. She previously teamed up with the Scituate High School National Honor Society to collect dozens of backpacks that were distributed to foster children throughout the state.
When foster children are removed from their home, it is often an abrupt process, leaving the youth with no time to pack and with little besides the clothes on their back, according to Terceira.
“When they arrive, all they have is a trash bag with a couple of items they acquired along the way,” she said.
Terceira said she felt compelled to help foster children while in high school when a guest speaker talked about the experiences of kids in foster care. She said she believes that self-worth and positive mental health come from how a person perceives themselves, and giving them a backpack gives them power.
“We give them a backpack that is theirs. No one gets to take that away from them, no matter the situation. It gives them power, and self-worth. The idea is that they are worth more than a trash bag. We value them more than that,” she said.
Terceira has an Amazon list for backpack items found at tinyurl.com/4rxcj7d9. As Miss American Woman of Service, she said she hopes to take the project nationwide and is looking for national partners to help grow the service.
“I would really like to scale it up to help youth and foster care across the country,” she said.
Terceira also helped in several youth-powered food drives to provide snacks and juice boxes to a food pantry in Westerly.
Of the competition, Terceira said it was refreshing to see one where women in every aspect of life are represented. She said it empowers women to be what they want to be, and they are judged on their service, not on their appearance.
“I’m really proud to be part of this organization, a national representation where it’s not about what you look like, it’s about how you treat others,” she said.
“There were women and girls of every size, height, weight, tattoos,” she said.
Terceira works for Camp Fuller in Wakefield, a part of the YMCA of Greater Providence, where she helps children become independent. She said she is 100 percent sure that she wants to continue to work with youth, and is happy where she is and the with impact she can make with the youth at the camp.
