MSU / RUSS HOUSTON / Laura Lee Lewis was crowned recently as the new Miss Mississippi State University. The daughter of Mark and Lorin Lewis, she is a 2011 Brookhaven High School graduate.

Laura Lee Lewis, 20, of Brookhaven, will represent her college this year as Miss Mississippi State University.

An elementary education major, she is the daughter of Mark and Lorin Lewis. The 2011 Brookhaven High School graduate has a passion for reading and is using her title to promote literacy throughout the state.

She has been active in the Brookhaven community and started the Teen Trendsetters Reading program which partners high school students with elementary school students in need of some extra help with reading.

Local alumnus from MSU Gary Blair said his organization is very proud of Lewis’ title.

“I was at the pageant. We had a good group of people there from Lincoln County supporting her,” Blair said. “We are very proud of her and happy to have her representing our university in the upcoming Miss Mississippi Pageant in Vicksburg. She is a beautiful girl inside and out.”

Lewis will represent the university next summer at the 2014 Miss Mississippi pageant. At the recent campus pageant, she won the lifestyle and fitness and talent portions of the competition. In talent, she sang “Somewhere” from West Side Story.

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Marketing Director Kay Burton has worked with Lewis and said the Miss Mississippi candidate is a stand-out person.

“She is an outstanding young woman,” Burton said. “She is highly motivated and has set a lot of goals for herself.” Burton said Lewis is focused and passionate about helping Mississippi kids become proficient readers by third grade.

“She is busy developing mentoring programs,” said Burton, noting that the program Lewis started in Brookhaven last year “made a great impact with students – the elementary and the high school students.”

Burton said Lewis’ program is called Mentoring Matters, “and she is developing ways to match kids with mentors.”