Jillian Smith
Miss Yosemite Valley

Miss yosemite valley 2017

is Jillian Smith! A student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she took home the title of Miss California and more than $25,000 in scholarship money!

Smith was born on December 5, 1994. Her interest in the Miss America Organization started at the young age of 5 when she attended the Miss California pageant to watch her cousin compete. That summer, she was inspired by Miss California 2000, Rita Ng, and decided that she wanted to learn how to play the piano.

At 6 years old, Jillian began taking piano lessons and has been classically trained for 16 years. She won her first title in the Miss America Organization at 16 when she was crowned Miss Sacramento County’s Outstanding Teen 2011. She was a top ten finalist at Miss California’s Outstanding Teen 2011, and has since held the title’s of Miss Nevada County’s Outstanding Teen 2012, Miss Northern California Regional 2013, Miss Los Angeles County 2015, and Miss Yosemite Valley 2017.

Jillian has been working as a nanny since she was 16 and says that working with children is her “absolute favorite thing ever.” When she was a senior in high school, she started a program called, “Arts in the Afternoon,” where she would go to a local 3rd grade class every week and teach them how to play the recorder and read treble clef.

She is currently a senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Music. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in entertainment media. “In a perfect world,” she says, “I will score a job either producing or hosting ‘Little Big Shots,’ and combine my love of working with children with my love of entertainment broadcast.”