By Julia Train
Last weekend 22-year-old Victoria Mozitis from Northfield was crowned Miss New Jersey.
Her journey started two years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic when her dad’s coworker, a local pageant director who knew that Mozitis sings, asked him if she would be interested in entering a competition.
“He came home and was like, ‘I think I just signed you up for a pageant’,” Mozitis said. “It was during COVID so I was just itching to sing somewhere.” She had been doing musical theater since fourth grade (professionally since eighth grade) and missed performing.
The pageant process was interesting to her because Mozitis grew up watching the Miss America pageants with her grandmother, and her father was part of the opening performance for the competition when he was her age.
So Mozitis wound up competing. She finished second runner-up to Augostina Mallous, who was Miss New Jersey 2022. After that first pageant, she decided that she wanted to continue pursuing it.
Although glamorous, there’s a substantial amount of work required to compete.
There’s paperwork, such as an interview fact sheet and an essay that needs to be written about the contestant’s community service initiative (CSI). Mozitis had to prepare her talent, which is singing, and make sure that it fits within the allotted 1 minute and 30 seconds.
“I basically performed surgery on my vocal tracks to try to fit into that short space,” she said.
A key aspect of the Miss America Organization is community service, so each contestant needs to work toward their community service initiative and complete volunteer appearances.
Mozitis’ community service initiative is LEAP, which stands for Literacy, Enhancement, Artistry, and Performance.
When she was younger, she would visit the library once a week with her dad, which fostered her love of storytelling and imagination, and led her to major in musical theater in college.
“I also acknowledged that it’s a huge privilege to have dreams like that. There are kids out there who are in low-income areas who are illiterate, don’t have that drive or don’t know how to shoot for the stars like that,” she said. “Even something as simple as reading aloud to children allows them to express themselves creatively in a way that they’re not able to.”
When coming up with her CSI, she talked to Dad, who is a special education teacher, about how theater can help in education.
After their conversation and research, they came to the conclusion that since both are centered around storytelling, involvement in theater allows children to use a hands-on approach and visual elements to read more fluently.
She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rider University in 2023 with a bachelor of fine arts in musical theater, and a minor in arts and entertainment industries management. When she was at Rider, she would read to children at schools around Lawrenceville, organized a book drive and started a library in Uganda.
Although helping others and the title of Miss New Jersey are extremely rewarding, Mozitis said there is a fear of losing yourself that isn’t talked about enough. After her win, several past Miss New Jerseys reached out to her to make sure she was alright.
“You are a servant to your community and all you do is give and give,” said Mozitis. “[I’m] trying to find the balance between that and pouring into my own cup and checking in on myself.”
She thinks it’s an important part of the opportunity that should be talked about, but she mentioned how her friends and family make sure that she’s still herself and doing what she loves.
She was crowned June 17 at Resorts Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.
Her next stop is the Miss America Competition next year (location and date have not yet been announced) and countless options for afterward. Mozitis would like to either be on Broadway, become a casting director, or even work for the Miss America Organization behind the scenes with marketing or production.
She would also love to expand her community service initiative into a non-profit organization.
Although she’s excited about accomplishing her goals, she’s focused on enjoying the leg of her journey she’s on right now.
“There are girls who do this for years and years and work towards it and in a way I feel like just my life experiences have prepared me for this,” Mozitis said. “I’ve only been directly a part of this organization for two years and so that’s something that I’m really, really thankful for.”
