ANNAPOLIS, Md. – On Saturday, June 21st, 2025, Maria Derisavi was crowned Miss Maryland 2025.
Maria immigrated to the United States at nine years old, and is the first Iranian-American Miss Maryland in the organization’s 104 year history. Maria is also the first Miss Maryland from St. Mary’s County. Maria will go on to represent the state of Maryland at the Miss America competition in September, hosted in Orlando, Florida. Maria won the crown following a week of competition hosted in the historic Maryland Theater in Hagerstown, Maryland, including interview, fitness, on-stage question, talent, and evening gown.
Maria is a 22 year old summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama with a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Chinese. She was a fellow in Harvard Law School’s inaugural class of Future Leaders in Law fellows, and was a U.S. Senator Shelby Scholar at the University of Alabama. She earned over $11,000 in scholarship awards at this year’s Miss Maryland competition, which she will contribute toward attending law school.
In her year as Miss Maryland, Maria will advocate for resilience development programming for Maryland’s low income students. Since 2021, Maria has championed her community service initiative titled SeizeYourOpportunities, a research-backed resilience development program that has already reached thousands of students across the state of Maryland through school seminars that empower students through goal setting and self-efficacy workshops. Maria looks forward to volunteering with other charitable organizations during her year of service.
For the talent portion of the competition, Maria performed a speech about her story of immigration to the United States, her gratitude for American opportunities, and the need to seize such opportunities in service of those without the privilege to do so.
The winner and runners-up for Miss Maryland 2025 are:
Winner: Maria Derisavi, Miss St. Mary’s County – $11,000 Scholarship First Runner-Up: Alaysia Bookal, Miss Potomac – $5,000 Scholarship
Second Runner-Up: Jaclyn Davis, Miss Northern Maryland – $3,500 Scholarship Third Runner-Up: Allie Wolfe, Miss Montgomery County – $2,500 Scholarship Fourth Runner-Up: Elle Miles, Miss Baltimore – $1,500 Scholarship
I thought she was from Kuwait.