Isabella Freund Crowned Miss New Jersey’s Outstanding Teen

CLAYTON – Isabella Freund, of Seaville, was crowned Miss New Jersey’s Outstanding Teen 2020 Jan. 25 at the Performing Arts Center at Clayton High School, Clayton.
According to a release, she was awarded $7,450 in scholarships and a prize package valued at over $10,000 with sponsors Coco’s Chateau and personal training and nutrition counseling by Training Aspects along with a week stay at the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition in Orlando, Fla.
Freund, 16, resides in Seaville. She attends Ocean City High School, and her scholastic ambition is to earn a medical degree in pediatric cardiology.
She plays tennis and golf on her high school teams, performs in musical productions, takes dance lessons, is a Student Council and Key Club member, and plays the piano as her winning talent.
Freund is also a member of the National Junior Honor Society, takes all honors and AP classes all while earning Distinguished Honor Roll all semesters.
Freund’s platform is Make-A-Wish and has raised over $20,000 to help grant wishes to children with critical illnesses.
Wishes can be life-changing for a child facing medical hardships. A wish gives the gift of hope, strength, and joy. The 2011 Wish Impact Study revealed that a wish empowers children to fight harder.
Freund knows first-hand the impact a wish makes. Her brother was a wish recipient. The experience changed his life, but also the entire family.
It inspired Freund to become a volunteer and active fundraiser for Make-A-Wish.
Wishes strengthen wish kids and their families, rally communities, and change the lives of everyone involved. 
Wishes enable critically ill children to dream of the unimaginable and achieve it. That strength translates into an internal power to fight illness and survive, even in the face of despair. That is the power of a wish.
The Miss New Jersey’s Outstanding Teen Organization is an official preliminary to the Miss America’ s Outstanding Teen Program (MAOTeen) and a little sister to the Miss America Organization, which is based out of Atlantic City. MAOTeen was organized to promote scholastic achievement, creative accomplishment, healthy living, and community involvement for America’s teens.
It is a scholarship-based program offering teens the opportunity to be awarded scholarship money for college.
Over $21,000 in scholarships was awarded at the state competition on January 25, 2020.
Freund competed as Miss Seashore Line’s Outstanding Teen along with 19 other local titleholders from all over the state.
First runner-up was Meadow Paliotta, Miss Northern Lakes’ Outstanding Teen from Ridgewood; Second runner-up was Diana Natalicchio, Miss Bergen County’s Outstanding Teen from Woodcliff Lake; Third runner-up was Maria Lynn Sooy, Miss Coastal Shore’s Outstanding Teen from Upper Township; and Fourth runner-up was McKenzie Hegarty, Miss Ramapo Valley’s Outstanding Teen from Denville.