The Miss New Jersey Teen USA was held October 13, 14 & 15, 2006, in Parsippany, NJ in conjunction with the Miss New Jersey USA pageant.
Prior to naming the top finishers, special awards were presented. The Miss Photogenic award winner was Kellee Blades and Miss Amity was Ashley Taylor.
From a large selection of the top New Jersey teenagers, 17 ladies advanced to the semifinals on October 15th. They were: Nicole Patouhas, Gina Antoniello, Michelle Cannizzaro, Alexandra Cheshul, Alexandra Daniels, Ashley Festa, Alison Komorowski, Samantha Fox, Shefali Mandhle, Paige Meyer, Danielle Parenti, Stephanie Salterelli, Lindsey Sengebush, Erica Szymanski, Briana Taylor, Amanda Savage, and Alyssa Campanella.
After the semifinal evening gown and swimsuit competitions were completed, a top five was named and asked a final question. At the conclusion of the pagent the names were announced in the following order: 4th Runner-up: Amanda Savage, 3rd Runner-up: Alexandra Cheshul, 2nd Runner-up: Nicole Patouhas, and 1st Runner-up: Samantha Fox.
The last teenager standing was Alyssa Campanella who captured the Miss New Jersey Teen USA 2007 title and the right to compete for the Miss Teen USA title.
Other awards were presented to teens who did not make the semfinals. The award winners included: Marissa Tarabocchia, Bridget Slade, Amanda Martin, Christine Skorenko for Non-Finalist Interview; Tara Ward-Kellish, Heather Wright, Shelly Barclay, Salina Miller for Non-Finalist Swimsuit; and Nicole Harlan, Megan Lovett, Ashley Krug, Sierah Tyson for Non-Finalist Evening Gown.
Alyssa is an Honor Roll student at Freehold Township High School where she has a 4.0 GPA. She is currently taking AP and Honors courses and has said that her current favorite class is Lab Physics. Alyssa is currently ranked #64 in her Junior class of 520 students and was recently inducted into the National Honor Society. In May 2007, Alyssa was selected to be a Peer Leader for her high school for the 2007-2008 school year
Over the past few years, her dedication towards schoolwork has been recognized through numerous awards: The President’s Excellence Award (2002), The United States Achievement Academy National Merit Award (2004 & 2006), and The United States Achievement Academy National Leadership & Service Award (2007). She twice received The Enthusiastic Reader Award (2005 & 2006) where she was able to meet the author and actual characters of the book Shadow Divers and the famous horror-novelist R.L. Stine.
Alyssa is an active member of The Patriot Player ’s Drama Club and the International Thespian Society at her high school. Acting since she was six-years old, Alyssa loves to be on stage. Both acting and public speaking have been a part of Alyssa's life for the past ten years. During this time, she has played many roles including multiple roles in The Wizard of Oz, in Go Ask Alice as Alice’s mother, in The Outsiders as Cherry Valance, and in Arsenic and Old Lace as Elaine Harper. Alyssa also likes to be quite involved backstage. She worked on costumes for The Outsiders and was a part of set crew and makeup crew for Pirates of Penzance. Alyssa is a former dancer, having danced for five years in jazz, ballet, Pointe, tap, and modern.
Alyssa enjoys music and sports. For three years she played the violin and was a member of her elementary school ’s Advanced Orchestra. For three years she also played softball for Manalapan's Devil Rays where she played the position of catcher and helped their team move into 3 rd place. She is a diehard New York Mets fan.
In September 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States, Alyssa was inspired to become involved in raising awareness and funds for the people who lost everything in the storm. She contacted UNICEF and gave out 1600 Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF boxes to kids throughout her community and had them ask their neighbors, family, and friends to donate for the child victims of Hurricane Katrina. Once collected and counted, she found that they had raised over $2200! Because of her hard work and dedication to UNICEF, in April 2006 Alyssa was named an Honorary UNICEF Ambassador for the U.S. Fund; due to her continued efforts with the UNICEF program, Alyssa was once again named an Honorary UNICEF Ambassador for the U.S. Fund in April 2007!
Alyssa is passionate about working with children. She is currently enrolled in a Child Development program at her high school where she will have the wonderful opportunity to be a pre-school teacher to 3 and 4-year old kids in her community. She also won a D.A.R.E. contest in 2002 by designing a poster to spread drugs and alcohol prevention awareness to kids in her community.
Alyssa hopes to attend college and earn a degree in international relations and international affairs. Alyssa hopes to one day become a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). As for her dream career, Alyssa's goal is to one day become a teacher who teaches abroad to children in different countries around the world. While Alyssa is currently studying Italian, she hopes to become fluent in many different languages and travel the world.
