She’s been described as “a perfect poi-dog mix of Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, English, German, Hungarian and Romanian ancestry representing Hawaii,” but newly crowned Miss Hawaii 2017 Kathryn Teruya is also a master of time management.

The 21-year-old ‘Iolani grad trained for the June 10 pageant while also working toward a degree in biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and studying for dental school admission exams. Every day began with a 6 a.m. gym workout in preparation for the swimsuit judging.

The hard work and long hours paid off. Teruya will represent Hawaii at the Miss America Pageant on Sept. 9 in Atlantic City, N.J.

JOHN BERGER: You mentioned that you felt the presence of your ancestors during the competition. How did you feel them?

KATHRYN TERUYA: My great-grandmother was a Radio City Rockette. She was 6 feet tall, and when I was on stage doing “I Want to Be a Rockette” for talent, I really felt her presence with me. I felt all of my ancestors were there with me to support me and give me energy, and I fed off of that.

JB: You were Miss Hawaii Teen USA 2012, and your younger sister, Lauren Teruya, is Miss Hawaii Teen USA 2017. She was leading your cheering section at the pageant.

KT: She really is my best friend. Whatever it is that we go through, we go through together. She came to the stage door and gave me a hug right before the pageant started.

JB: Only one contestant in a pageant gets the title. What do you get out of a pageant if you don’t win?

KT: When I did my first pageant, I was 15. I was shy and had grown up kind of feeling that I was the “dumb kid.” Doing the pageant helped me open myself up to accepting who I was and learn about who I wanted to be. I continued learning about myself by running for Miss Hawaii.

JB: When did you decide that you want to be a pediatric dentist?

KT: I was 15 years old when I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps. We traveled to Guatemala, and I saw people who had never seen a dentist before. I was able to extract my first tooth, which was really very scary, and I had a lot of help from the dentists. I knew in that moment that dentistry is what I wanted to do.

JB: What might surprise people who meet you as Miss Hawaii?

KT: I ran track-and-field hurdles from seventh grade all the way through 12th grade, and I absolutely loved it.

“On the Scene” appears weekly in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sunday Magazine. Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.