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Cara Mund: Miss America, Confidence, Leadership

Cara Mund was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota. At a young age, Cara showed interest in the arts and dance. She began dancing at the age of two. This allowed her to train for four summers with the Radio City Rockettes, an iconic American dance team. 


Cara became well versed in many extra-curricular activities in highschool. She attended Century High School and graduated as the class valedictorian. Cara was part of the school’s Speech Team, the cheerleading team, the National Honor Society president, and the girls state and girls nation programs, to name a few.


She began pageantry as a child, capturing the titles of Little Miss North Dakota, Miss Pre-Teen North Dakota, and Miss Junior Teen North Dakota.


In 2010, she was Miss Red River Valley’s Outstanding Teen. She then went on to compete at Miss North Dakota’s Outstanding Teen in 2010, where she won the state title. This allowed her to compete at Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2011. She also was the 4th runner-up at the Miss North Dakota Teen USA 2012 pageant.


After graduating from Brown University, Cara’s heart was set on the Miss America pageant. In 2016, she was Miss Oil Country and placed as the first runner-up at Miss North Dakota 2016. Close, but not close enough for Cara. Only a year later, Cara competed at the Miss North Dakota 2017 pageant as Miss Northern Lights, and this time she did not fall short. She was crowned Miss North Dakota 2017 and was on her way to bringing North Dakota its first Miss America crown.


To hear more about the life of Cara Mund and her journey to becoming Miss America 2018 listen to this week’s podcast.


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