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MOORHEAD — A Minnesota State University Moorhead student was crowned Miss Minnesota 2023 on Friday, June 23, at Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Welch.

Angelina Amérigo, 22, majors in digital media management with an emphasis on public relations and advertising at MSUM through their online degree program, and is entering her senior year this fall. She got a $10,000 scholarship as part of winning the competition.

Amérigo, who lives in the Twin Cities, said she enrolled at MSUM because they offered her preferred program entirely through online courses, which gave her the flexibility to balance preparing for the Miss Minnesota competition while working toward her degree.

Amérigo will now represent Minnesota at the 2024 Miss America competition. She said she's looking forward to the challenge of balancing competition, her role as Miss Minnesota, and her online coursework.

"The first few months here in the summer are the busiest, so getting into the school year, I'm still going to be registered for some classes and be able to implement that into my schedule, so I'll still be an active student," Amérigo said.

She was the second runner-up for Miss Minnesota two years ago, and she was the first runner-up last year. She said her confidence helped her stay calm in the moment when she was announced as this year's winner.

"Everyone keeps telling me, they're like, you looked so calm. And I think I just had so much faith in that moment of just the timing of the path through my life and what that was going to look like," Amérigo said.

She said it's been a busy couple days since winning, and that busy schedule will continue as she performs duties as Miss Minnesota for the next year. Part of that includes her chosen community service initiative, which focuses on reducing the use of one-time plastics.

While performing those duties across the state over the next year, Amérigo said she's hoping she'll get a chance to get back on MSUM's campus for just the third time, as she's only visited in person twice before.