Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Being a pageant queen takes passion, determination, effort, talent, and even smarts. The current Miss Capital City has all of those attributes, and then some.

McKenna Vereeke, our current Miss Capital City, spoke on the WTAX Morning Newswatch about her experiences with being a pageant queen, and also about her future career path.

“Miss Capital City is the local title, which is a pre-requisite to becoming Miss Illinois. Miss Illinois is a pre-requisite to becoming Miss America.” Vereeke explains.

Vereeke also stated that she is planning on going the distance, and is hopeful to gain Miss Illinois this year, and to move into the role of Miss America after that, in terms of how close she’s already came to the state crown, Vereeke said “This will be my fifth time competing, I’ve been first runner up twice and made the top ten. So, I’ve been very close.”

Despite the busy lifestyle of being a pageant queen, and with the time-consuming tasks of rehearsing and preparing yourself for the stage, Vereeke is also studying to be a psychologist.

“I’m getting my doctorate in psychology, so it’s a Psy.D. and the reason I chose to do that is because it is more clinic focused, so I would get more hands-on work with the community, especially in Evansville, where we are trying to provide some support, as there wasn’t much before.” Said Vereeke. Vereeke is set to graduate with that doctorate in the class of 2029, from the University of Evansville in Indiana.

There is also a large handful of people out there who look down on pageants.

Vereeke states “There is a lot of controversy around pageants. In my perspective, the controversy comes from people who never have participated in a pageant before and from those who don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes”