Congratulations to Grace Hanke, recently named Miss Outstanding Teen Saint Clair Shores. The word grace means courteous goodwill and we certainly believe her family made the right decision when choosing her name.
She’s a junior at Lake Shore High School and will graduate in 2024. The plan is to get a degree in Bio-Medical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
The decision to compete for Miss Saint Clair Shores Outstanding Teen stemmed from her passion about our city and desire to be more involved. She said, "I believe my leadership skills would not only make me a good role model for teens, but get more teens to come out and be a part of this pageant."
"The judges evaluated us contestants on personal interview, fitness, talent, and on stage question. To elaborate: personal interview was a eight minute interview with the judges about ourselves and current events, the fitness portion was a workout routine we individually performed on stage, for talent I sang How Far I’ll Go from the movie Moana, and the on stage question is one specific question picked at random for each contestant to personally answer." Wow, what an incredibly thorough process! It is quite obvious that this teenager is going far.
Her main goal as Miss Outstanding Teen Saint Clair Shores is to make social media a more comfortable and realistic place for teenagers. Her social initiative is Social Media vs Reality: The Impact on Self-Perception. In order to show realism, she plans to use social media platforms to spread authenticity and hopefully get more teens out of their comfort zones.
She was kind enough to share some of her favorite Shorian memories, too! She sang the national anthem for senior night and when Mojo in the Morning came to a home basketball game! She claims that her list could go on and on about Lake Shore events.
"I enjoy every moment at my school. A special thank you to Lake Shore's amazing staff for being there and believing in me and every student!" The appreciation extends to her coaches who have taught her good sportsmanship and teamwork. They have grown my love for my sports and make learning so much more fun!" She is currently a member of the Varsity Volleyball and Basketball teams under the leadership of Coach Kwapisz and Coach Gwozdz.
It is always important to have someone to look up to and Grace easily named her three older sisters Paige, Madison, and Alaina as her role models. "They are all so smart, responsible, and hard working. They all attend/attended college and are very successful, which I hope to be some day."
A piece of advice she lives by is this: Nobody’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes. She described, "I personally get really hard on myself when I don’t fully accomplish something I worked really hard for or make a mistake, and I help myself by remembering this."
Grace's simple elegance and zest for life has her setting lofty goals and helping others feel more confident.
