Miss Nevada, Carson native, urges youth to get active in politics

Four years ago, first-time voter Karrina Ferris, 17 then, stood in line at the Carson City Community Center waiting to cast her ballot. She was eager to exercise her right and eligibility to vote prior to turning 18, as the Nevada Revised Statutes establishes.

NRS 293.4855 allows citizens 17 years of age or older but less than 18 to preregister to vote upon submission of a completed application and would be deemed a registered voter, as Ferris set out to do by her 18th birthday. 

But she noticed there were no other young people among the crowd.

“It was a momentous election, and I was surprised more people didn’t want to be involved,” Ferris said. “I learned people in the 18- to 28-year age group are the least likely to vote.”

Ferris finally channeled her desire to motivate political enthusiasm among youth in another pursuit.

In June, she was crowned the Miss Nevada Scholarship Organization’s 75th anniversary Miss Nevada at Bally’s Lake Tahoe. She goes on to compete in the Miss America competition in January 2025. To further inspire others her age, the newly crowned Miss Nevada has created her “Inform to Reform: Education America’s Future” community service initiative to develop a deeper appreciation for the electoral process.

“It was a very full-circle moment,” she said of the competition. “After competing for eight years, it’s really exciting when you’re told ‘yes,’ and you just realize you compete and you’re growing. … It was meant to work.”

The Carson City native began the program at 6 years old. She joined Nevada’s Silver State Stars, a mentorship program for girls ages 4 to 12 and the state chapter of Miss America’s Little Sisters. She moved into the Miss Nevada Teen and finally into Miss Nevada. She always gained a little more experience and insight about herself with each year, she said.

“It was more about who Karrina was, not just Karrina as a titleholder but who I was outside the pageant world because I felt a little more confident in myself and my abilities to perform,” she said.

Ferris, a graduate of Carson High School and now of the University of Nevada, Reno as of 2023, said she’s had the past year to learn about the workforce. The competition had been one of her most “formative years” to date. Last year, she worked with Gov. Joe Lombardo who issued a proclamation marking the week of Sept. 17, 2023, as Constitution Week to celebrate the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and to promote its importance in American history. The proclamation was done in conjunction with Ferris’ community service initiative and creation of a series of lesson plans for fifth and sixth graders in the state to share why the document is meaningful to citizens.

“By the time students are 17 or 18 years old, we’re not giving them comprehensive (civics) education,” she said.

Ferris also doesn’t shy away from sharing the evolution of the Miss America program itself.

“Today, we don’t participate in a swimsuit competition at all,” she said. “It has changed to represent the modern woman, and that’s something I’m really proud to be a part of. It is the largest scholarship provider for women in the world. For me personally, I’ve won over $18,000 in scholarships. I’ve graduated completely debt-free, and now I’m hoping to go to law school.”

Ferris’ law school admission tests were paid for, and while she has been accepted to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law, she has Georgetown, Stanford, Yale and the University of Michigan on her list of potential schools to earn her juris doctorate. Ferris aspires to gain national experience but ultimately says her roots are firmly planted in Nevada.

“I want to work in big law in New York but I would love to come back,” she said. “I was raised in Carson City, so I want to run for political office here in the Nevada Legislature.”

She has given some thought to running for the Nevada Senate and possibly for the 2nd Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei.

When she’s not involved in the pageant or advocating for community service, she enjoys dancing and riding horses and playing golf as she did during school.

She encourages other young women to try the competition if they choose.

“If you find out that you adore the program and fall in love with it the way that I do, you will gain a lot of friends and maybe you’ll win scholarship dollars and feel emboldened to stand on the stage and talk to a crowd and express your beliefs,” Ferris said. “I will say to anyone just go for it and dive in and immerse yourself in the experience and who knows? You may be the next Miss Nevada.”

For information about Ferris and the program, visit @MissAmericaNV, @MissAmericasTeenNV or www.missnevada.org.