For decades, the rose princess has been an important tradition, with a rose princess selected from Portland-Metro area high schools every year, including from Benson. This year, Adora Tran, a junior at Benson, had the honor of being selected, being chosen from student and rosarian vote. Tran was inspired to run by the previous rose princess, Brenda Martinez De Jesus, saying, “She was like, one of my biggest inspirations. I saw her stories on Instagram and her being part of the parades with all these girls, and having this sisterhood connection made me really want to be a part of the Rose Princess Festival, too.”
Tran also has experience in volunteering. One place she volunteers at is her church. She said, “At my church, we hang lights at Christmas, we make Vietnamese sticky rice cake to sell during the Lunar New Year, I volunteer to teach a Catechism/Bible study class for 2nd graders, and I also dance and help teach dance to girls at my church.” Later adding, “It’s such an amazing community to be around, and it’s fun volunteering with them.”
Being a rose princess also requires an application. “We had to fill out this very, very long application, and [it] asked ‘what activities are you in in high school? What hobbies do you have?’ And they asked about, like, volunteer hours and it’s just like a whole bunch of paragraphs.” The applications also required a letter of recommendation. Tran chose to get hers from her church’s youth leader, John. He was also the first person who she told that she won. “ He told me that ‘if [you] win, I’ll show you the recommendation letter I wrote.’”
The process also consists of an interview with the Rosarians. “You walk into a room and there [are] seven to eight judges in front of you and you would have one minute to introduce yourself, and then they would ask five questions on the spot, which is very, like, scary. […] I was very nervous, I was scared I was going to mess up.” The judges select four people to move on to school voting, and also vote for the rose princess: half of the decision is the judges’ vote, and the other half is the student vote.
“The whole Benson community was very supportive, and I’ve been getting like, congratulations, like everywhere on social media and in the hallways. And when I walk back to class, my whole class is cheering for me. So I thought that was really heartwarming. […] I just love the Benson community, and I’m glad I get to represent this amazing school.”
