Recently four students ran to represent McDaniel as Rose Festival princesses: juniors Kathy Nguyen, Daphne Young, Deniulcy Lopez Polino, and senior Snow Carnahan. To give a deeper understanding and insight into the background and aspirations of these girls, they were interviewed by The Oracle. Below you will see responses to the questions we had for them.
The Rose Court is made up of one princess elected from a participating school in a 4A, 5A or 6A high school in Multnomah, Washington or Clackamas Counties. These ambassadors will represent their school and win a $3,500 scholarship to put towards higher education. They will get networking opportunities, travel, and be a part of a tradition that has been held in Portland for over 100 years. One of the Portland rose princesses will be chosen as Rose Queen for the year.
Q: How did you hear about the Rose Court?
Nguyen: I heard it from an Instagram post, and I also know that Julie [Liu] did it last year, who is the Rose Princess from last year. I grew up going to the Rose Festivals, and I just thought that they had picked people from our neighborhood to be our princesses. I didn’t realize that they were from PPS.
Young: So, my oldest sister was Rose Princess for Franklin in 2020, and I was in sixth grade at the time. But she really pushed me to do it, and ever since I started at McDaniel it has always been my goal. Since freshman year, I have been looking forward to the day that I can, you know, try it out.
Lopez Polino: I heard about it last year from our last Rose Princess.
Carnahan: I had seen one of my senior friends do it in a previous year, and I thought that would be fun for me to do.
Q: Why did you decide to run for McDaniel Rose Princess?
Nguyen: I saw that it was like a big networking program. I didn’t even know that there was a scholarship added to it, or other big activities, I just like networking with people.
Young: My sister was a Rose Princess, and then also Julie was on my cheer team, and I’m friends with her and I’ve known her since I was a kid, so it was really cool to have two influences I know that have done it before.
Lopez Polino: Well, I decided it would be such a good opportunity, and in general, the Rose Festival is just so fun and I was like, oh, why not be a part of it?
Carnahan: I thought that would be fun to do, and just be fun in general.
Q: What has been your favorite part of the process so far and why?Nguyen: Honestly, interview or community day was really cool, where you meet the people that run the program and then they ask you questions. The questions that they had asked were questions I’ve never been asked before, so it’s cool to open my mind and answer something about myself that I’ve never thought about before. Also meeting them was really great, it made things a little less nerve wracking, knowing that they’re like you know, normal people that are just interviewing you. I also like the application process, just like reflecting back on what I’ve done so far in high school and then submitting that, it felt nice.
Young: The writing on the application was very interesting. I feel like the questions they ask are very similar to college essay questions so it was really nice to challenge myself, to take a deep dive into who I really am and what I want to represent. And community day, it was freezing in there at Lloyd Center!
Lopez Polino: Honestly, meeting all the candidates was really fun–and the first interview.
Carnahan: I definitely like the interviews that we did, the speech and then the questions. I thought that was fun. Also picking out the dress at Abby’s Closet was fun. There were two or three days for the Rose Court girls to go in and find a dress at Abby’s Closet. That was really fun.
Q: To be eligible to run for your school’s Rose Princess, you need to complete 20 hours of community service throughout your years in high school. What was your community service and why did you choose to do that?
Nguyen: My freshman year, I was the lieutenant governor of Key Club, and everything that I did was community service hours. But I’ve been in Key Club, Red Cross Club, Reach Club, and I’m in a youth group for a nearby church, so those are all accumulative for my 20 hours.
Young: I didn’t have the typical community service, but I have volunteered many hours for cheer. We perform at Black History Month, Juneteenth and a lot of events for the community. I’m also in advanced leadership, and we help with dances, assemblies, events, all that kind of stuff. So many times I’m staying after school helping set up.
Lopez Polino: I’ve been volunteering for the past three years at Oregon Food Bank. I’ve done food distributions, I’ve done necessity baskets, I’ve volunteered out their garden. That’s one of my bigger ones. I also did the Mainspring community pantry. I worked with them making the mural as a lead artist. And then I also worked with BB2S [Building Blocks 2 Success] in their robotics program.
Carnahan: I’ve done outdoor school four times. So I typically spend 20 to 23 hours a day with the kids. It’s a lot. The school sets it as 80 hours per week for community service. I do outdoor school because I find it interesting and fun to teach kids about science for their week, plus it’s a staple for any Oregon kid in sixth grade.
Q: If you become the McDaniel Rose Princess, what are you most looking forward to?
Nguyen: I definitely look forward to being on a float because it’s so different from where I usually stand when I’m at the Rose Festival. And I look forward to meeting all the other winning candidates if I do win.
Young: I think what I’m excited for the most is just being able to show my personality. I think that everything that the Rose Princess stands for is like who I am: public speaking, communicating, socializing with people, as well as the glam, getting ready, dresses, makeup, taking pictures. I love those things. Being a cheerleader since freshman year, I don’t really have stage fright anymore, so I love getting out there. I love pushing myself to new limits. I love seeing what I can do and meeting different types of people. Being able to find mentors, networking and finding things that are gonna encourage me further in education and careers, I think it’s going to be really empowering. So for me, the most exciting thing is just the process.
Lopez Polino: What I have noticed from past princesses is that the majority are wanting to be nurses or something in the medical field. And I feel like I can offer something different from being in a STEM field, just more engineering wise.
Carnahan: Definitely traveling. Just going around with all the other princesses would be fun. Also getting to represent my school for my senior year would also be fun.
Q: Do you have plans for higher education yet? Or loose plans?
Nguyen: I do have plans, it’s just nerve racking thinking about them. After high school, I think I’d stay close to home with my college. I’d probably go to Lewis & Clark, and then I’d major in law and minor and something relating to medicine. So I hope to be in the future a lawyer in bioethics.
Young: With college, I’ve had so much anxiety about it. Ever since last year I’m like, okay, I’m gonna be an adult. Rose Princess really supports the girls and pushes them into whatever careers and education they want to pursue, and I feel like that is gonna be really helpful for motivating me. Also, to have it for college essays, that’s a really good topic, and I feel like I’m going to learn a lot from it.
Lopez Polino: I’m hoping to major in engineering or mechanical engineering. Right now, I’m thinking about staying here, at least in Oregon.
Carnahan: I am going to go to PSU for pre-nursing and biochemistry, and then I’m going to get my nursing degree and become a neonatal nurse. That’s my plan.
These four girls have an exciting month of March because school voting took place on Mar. 10 when each candidate’s video was shown to the school, and the McDaniel Rose Princess will be announced at the assembly on Mar. 21.
