CHESAPEAKE — It was a whirlwind week of rehearsals, service club speeches and community dinners that has made a lasting impression on a couple of Chesapeake High coeds. And as they think back on the Ohio’s Junior Miss contest they just got back from competing in, they see life skills were learned.

Last fall, seniors Kara Simpson and Nikki Lindsey were asked by Pam Rase, a resource teacher at the high school, if they’d want to enter the contest.

“I’m not a pageant girl. I was kind of iffy,” Lindsey said. But when both students learned what Ohio’s Junior Miss is really all about, they decided to try it.

That’s because the basis for the competition is to provide scholarship money for young women in the state. That’s why the criteria for just participating are so stringent.

This year the top prize was a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, with a number of smaller cash scholarships including a $300 stipend Lindsey won for her fitness routine.

That money will go directly to Marshall University where Lindsey hopes to study nursing. Both women also received $500 scholarships to Shawnee State University by the institution for their participation in the pageant.

Rase has taken students to Ohio’s Junior Miss for the past 12 years and the first thing she looks for in potential contestants is their academic achievement. She picks young women who are in the top 10 percent of their class. Next comes character, outside activities and talent.

It was in October when the pair went up to Mt. Vernon to try out for the competition. There they underwent a mini-version of what they would face in February from the judges’ interview to a strenuous fitness-dance routine.

But despite that trial run, both women found being a part of the actual competition initially daunting.

“When you first get out on the stage you think ‘Oh My Gosh, I will forget everything,’ ” Simpson said.

But all of a sudden the fun of the pageant takes over, the women say.

“Halfway through, you’re having fun and you relax,” Lindsey said.

Fun, plus the encouragement from the other contestants, is what saw the two through. And making connections with others is one of the pluses of entering Ohio Junior Miss, they say.

“The whole week there was no fighting,” Simpson said. “Everybody was so close.”

“No drama,” Lindsey added.

When Simpson, who wants to become a pediatrician, reflects on the competition experience, she sees the long-term pluses of participating as she learned to appreciate the value of upbeat perseverance.

“Keep a smile on your face,” she said.