For the talent portion of the Miss Maryland pageant, Maria Derisavi performed a speech about her story of immigration to the United States, her gratitude for American opportunities, and the need to seize such opportunities in service of those without the privilege to do so.
Miss Maryland 2025 Maria Derisavi of Great Mills, center, poses with third runner-up Allie Wolfe (Miss Montgomery County), left, first runner-up Alaysia Bookal (Miss Potomac), second runner-up Jaclyn Davis (Miss Northern Maryland) and fourth runner-up Elle Miles (Miss Baltimore).
Maria Derisavi of Great Mills, left front, reacts after being selected as Miss Maryland June 21 at the Maryland Theater in Hagerstown.
Maria Derisavi of Great Mills recently graduated summa cum from the University of Alabama with a master of public administration and a bachelor of arts in international relations and Chinese
For the talent portion of the Miss Maryland pageant, Maria Derisavi performed a speech about her story of immigration to the United States, her gratitude for American opportunities, and the need to seize such opportunities in service of those without the privilege to do so.
Miss Maryland 2025 Maria Derisavi of Great Mills, center, poses with third runner-up Allie Wolfe (Miss Montgomery County), left, first runner-up Alaysia Bookal (Miss Potomac), second runner-up Jaclyn Davis (Miss Northern Maryland) and fourth runner-up Elle Miles (Miss Baltimore).
Maria Derisavi has a community service initiative titled Seize Your Opportunities, and June 21 in Hagerstown she did exactly that when she was selected as Miss Maryland.
The 22-year-old is the first Iranian-American Miss Maryland in the organization’s 104 year history, and the first from St. Mary’s County to win the award.
“I competed against 18 of some of Maryland’s [most] accomplished, community-driven young women, so it was really an honor to be selected among those really incredible girls,†said Derisavi, who also won Miss Teen Maryland USA in 2021. “I was shocked when I won, but of course so grateful. You definitely go into these competitions to win, but at least for me you never expect to win, you just hope for it but I prepared my best.â€
She will represent Maryland when she competes in the Miss America competition which will be held in September in Orlando, Fla.
The Great Mills resident won the crown following a week of competition which included interview, fitness, on-stage question, talent and evening gown.
“Each contestant worked extremely hard and put their best foot forward at the Miss Maryland Competition,†2023 Miss Maryland and board member Kennedy Taylor said, adding that Derisavi “captured the judges’ hearts in all categories.â€
For the talent portion, Derisavi performed a speech about her story of immigration to the United States from Kuwait at the age of 9.
The first runner-up was Alaysia Bookal (Miss Potomac), followed by Jaclyn Davis (Miss Northern Maryland), Allie Wolfe (Miss Montgomery County) and Elle Miles (Miss Baltimore).
“We are always blown away by the level of talent at the Miss Maryland competition,†Taylor said.
Since 2021, Derisavi has championed her community service initiative titled SeizeYourOpportunities, a research-backed resilience development program that has already reached thousands of students across the state of Maryland through school seminars that empower students through goal setting and self-efficacy workshops.
“Coming from a low-income background myself, I know how important it is to have some sense of resilience, especially when you go through adverse experiences,†she said. “What my programming does is it’s research and educator-informed, so I work with social worker professionals and educators to create a workbook that talks about resiliency and teaches skills like goal-setting and perseverance.â€
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