Eureka High Graduate Greta Clark Earns the Title of Miss Missouri’s Teen

The moment Greta Clark found out she had won the title of Miss Missouri’s Teen 2025, she smiled, clasped her hand to her mouth, hugged her fellow finalist on stage and told her, “I’m so proud of you.”

At least that’s what she’s been able to gather from talking with others and watching video replays. Her actual memory of the moment itself is a bit of a fog.

“It was all just such a blur, and there was so much adrenaline in the moment that it didn’t feel real. It was so cool,” said Clark, a 2024 Eureka High graduate. “It’s just so great to see that all of the hard work I’ve done over the years is paying off.”

Clark earned the title of Miss Missouri’s Teen after three nights of competition at the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri, concluding June 14. She holds the title for the next year and will get the opportunity to represent the state at the Miss America’s Teen Competition in Orlando, Florida, during the first week of September.

The teen competition runs at the same time as the Miss America Competition.

“I’m so excited. I have grown up watching Miss America and following it my whole life,” she said. “Just being able to say that I’m going to walk on that stage is special to me.”

This was Clark’s fourth and final year competing in the Miss Missouri’s Teen competition. She performed a lyrical dance as her talent, and her community service initiative is “Empowering Youth to Strengthen Communities,” which encourages youth to channel their passions into volunteering in their communities. One of her favorite community service initiatives is the Ronald McDonald House and its “Meals from the Heart” program, which allows community groups to prepare food for guest families.

Clark has been dancing since she was 3 and was on the leadership team for both the Onstage show choir and Golden Line dance team during her time at Eureka. She was also treasurer for the school’s National Honor Society chapter.

“I just love performing. My mom is a music teacher, so I’ve had a lot of music in my background, ever since I was growing up,” said Clark, who attended LaSalle Springs Middle before Eureka. “I love singing, dancing and being able to share that passion with other people, especially on stage.”

While performing has been a lifelong love for Clark, she did not always have the same comfort in personal interactions. She describes herself as a “shy kid,” one who struggled to speak with strangers or express herself in public settings.

Her involvement with pageants has helped her flourish in that regard.

“This has really pushed me to have to have conversations with people and be able to talk about myself, which I hated to do,” she said. “Now I feel so grateful for it because I can speak to people. I’m able to make friends anywhere I go and communicate with people.”

Her involvement with the Miss Missouri’s Teen organization has also opened the door to a number of scholarship opportunities, including the $7,000 she earned for winning the state prize. Clark is a rising sophomore at the University of Missouri-Columbia majoring in health sciences, with plans to attend dental school after her undergraduate studies.

Her pageant prizes, along with academic scholarships she has earned at Missouri, have allowed her to attend college debt-free.

“I’ve always been so grateful for my dentist and orthodontist,” Clark said. “One of my favorite attributes about myself is my smile, and I would love to make other people feel that way.”

As Miss Missouri’s Teen, Clark hopes to visit elementary and middle school students to interact with them and talk with them about their goals and aspirations for the future, as well as how they can channel them in ways that will benefit their communities.

Thinking back on her time in Rockwood, she is appreciative of the positive impact teacher mentors such as Andy Ribbing, Nathan Schaefferkoetter, Lauren Schoellhorn, Michael McDonald and Kristen Rogan had on her.

“I am so thankful for the Rockwood School District,” Clark said. “I had so many amazing connections, whether that was with other students or faculty, it was really just a sense of community. I knew that, no matter what I was doing, there was always going to be someone that was supporting me.”

For now, Clark is taking just a moment to bask in the glow of becoming Miss Missouri’s Teen. But she and her family are also busy preparing her to take the stage for the national competition in Orlando in less than two months.

Part of that involves the logistics of finding a rental house that can sleep 16 – or 20 … or 26 … -- members of the family who are planning to make the trip to cheer Clark on.

“My mom has five other siblings who are all saying that they’re going,” she said, with a laugh. “So we’ve got a big family, and we’re all excited to be going.”

She’ll also have a sizable base of support across the 150 square miles of the Rockwood School District.

“We are extremely proud of her. She has worked really hard over the years,” said Clark’s mother, Dana. “It’s fun to see that all the years of dance and all the years of leadership opportunities she had through Rockwood and school, all of that has come together to make her this really confident and kind young lady. We always knew she would change people and change the world, and she is making it happen.”

(Some photos courtesy of David Pickering Photography, Eric Mattson Photography and The Mexico Ledger newspaper.)