Island Liaison introduces Miss Billma Peters as Miss Marshall Islands 2019.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) hosted for the first time its Miss Marshall Islands Pagent, for which Ms. Peters was a contestant representing the Mejit Atoll on 13 July 2019.

2011 AsianLEAD High school participants
2011 AsianLEAD High school participants

Ms. Peters grew up in Arizona as the oldest of 7 children. As with many RMI citizens, Billma is considered under the category of a non-US citizen despite the US's relationship with the Marshall islands; this means that certain state and federal services are not available such as work-study programs. During high-school, Billma attended Valley Vista High School and was first involved with Island Liaison through it's ASU partnering summer program, ASIAN LEAD. This program allowed for high-school students to foster their cultural education and leadership opportunities; at age 16 Billma was able to visit the Gila Internment camp and have lunch with one of the survivors sponsored by that organization.

Upon high-school graduation, she received an RMI scholarship that helped with base tuition and worked throughout college to pay for school to remain debt-free. In 2016, Billma also attended Island Liaison's Women and Girl's Health & Safety Day Summit while in college, and most recently participated in our 2019 Empowerment Forum for High School, College Students, and Young Adults (15 to 30+).

While in college, Billma's grandfather passed away from pancreatic cancer, and was inspired to finish her education as she promised him to pursue her career in the medical field to help her people. Billma now has completed her education at the University of Arizona with a Bachelors of Science in Health Administration and received her Masters of Science in Health Administration at Grand Canyon University.

2019 Pacific Islander Empowerment Forum students
2019 Pacific Islander Empowerment Forum students

Since winning Miss Marshall Islands, Billma has been involved with Island Liaison and attended several community meetings with the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) Arizona Chapter, Phoenix Chinese American Citizen Alliance (PCACA), and the Phoenix Asian Chamber of Commerce. She will be competing for Miss Pacific this November 2019 in Papua New Guinea.

On behalf of Island Liaison, Jeraamman im Kommol for who you are and all that you do!

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