Miss St Vincent and the Grenadines Raylene Browne crowned Miss New York Continental
The 19-year-old York College student is the third Vincentian-American to win the title in the pageant’s last three stagings.
NEW YORK, United States. Miss St Vincent and the Grenadines, Raylene Browne, has been crowned Miss New York Continental, becoming the third Vincentian-American to win the title in the last three stagings of the pageant.
The previous two winners were defending queen Kayla Mcletchie, the daughter of a Vincentian mother and a Trinidadian father, who won in 2019, and Kaila Phillips, who took the title the year before.
Browne, 19, a Brownsville resident, was named winner on June 20 from a field of six contestants, who competed in swimwear, talent, evening wear and interview categories at I.S. 275 on Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville.
Miss Jamaica Samia Leslie was first runner-up and Miss Trinidad and Tobago Amani Jordan second runner-up. Miss Haiti Adianna Basquiat received the Miss Congeniality award. Miss Belize Alexis Colliard and Miss Puerto Rico DeAsia Briana Samuels also competed. Miss Guyana Octavia Grimes did not take part because of a recent car accident, organisers said.
‘A promise’
Browne was born in Brooklyn in January 2007 to parents from Kingstown and Campden Park in St Vincent and the Grenadines. She lived in St Vincent for part of her childhood, returning to the US at the age of seven.
She told Caribbean Life that the title was “both an honour and a responsibility, but most of all it is a promise.”
Browne studies at York College, City University of New York, on a full scholarship, with a double major in psychology and political science, and plans to study law. She works as a social work intern at a law firm in downtown Brooklyn.
She said she entered with “zero intentions of winning”. “I was in it to do my best and to share a story that many of us Vincentians have lived,” she said.
Education and legal reform
Her platform focused on education and legal systems reform. “As someone who has personally experienced obstacles of adapting to a new country, not to mention having experienced the legal and education systems of both St Vincent and the US, I understand how transformative knowledge can be,” she said.
“Financial literacy is diminishing and people do not know how to build generational wealth,” Browne added, calling for education systems to incorporate real-world subjects.
