The spotlight is nothing new to Mississippi 2010 Junior Miss Katie Thurber of Ocean Springs, whose theater roles include Liesl von Trapp in KNS’s 2008 production of “The Sound of Music,” but winning the coveted scholarship program in Meridian on Saturday took her completely by surprise.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said Monday. “I am so honored to represent all those great girls. They’re all so talented and so smart.”

The scholarship program is not a pageant, organizers say, and instead of a crown, the winners receive medallions around their necks.

Thurber, West Jackson County Junior Miss, will compete for the national Junior Miss title in June 2010 in Mobile and next week will begin her senior year at Ocean Springs High School. She is the youngest of the five children of George and Patricia Thurber of Ocean Springs.

First runner-up is Moss Point Junior Miss Rayne Harris, another Jackson Countian and an incoming senior at Pascagoula High School. She’s the daughter of Rochelle Harris and has a five-year-old sister, Tanner Rio-Brielle Harris, who Rayne said “is my heart.”

In addition to both young women being from Jackson County, both plan to attend Columbia University in New York.

Katie wants to study either biomedical engineering or broadcast journalism and Rayne wants to take pre-law, minor in music and eventually study abroad.

Katie said, “I can’t make up my mind.” She sees biomedical engineering as finding a cure for cancer and developing new drugs.

“Broadcast journalism appeals to me,” she said, “because I like doing research, writing and speaking in public.

“I think it would be very interesting to be on the news and to give people information about their world.”

She observed, laughing, “If that whole biomed/broadcast journalism career doesn’t work out, I could trying being on Broadway.”

Being the youngest of five children, Thurber said, “was definitely an advantage. I very much enjoyed being the baby of the family. I can learn from their mistakes. I can ride on their accomplishments. It works both ways.”

Harris has her grandmother’s initials, which is steeped in family tradition and history. The “Rayne” part of her name, she said, comes “from a (female) detective my mom read and liked. She changed the spelling.”

She is attracted to law as a career, she said, because “I’ve been doing some public speaking, mock trials with my debate team and my uncle is an attorney.”

Of the Junior Miss scholarship competition, Harris said, “What’s funny is Katie and I had become friends during the week. I have so many pictures of us sitting there in practice.

“A lot of the girls had the idea of being in it to win. They didn’t see either one of us as a big threat. We kept telling everybody we were in it to have fun.”