The Miss Nebraska Pageant is an official preliminary for the Miss America Pageant... a scholarship program. The Miss America Program is an all-volunteer organization right down to the local level. Members of the pageant family work together to encourage young women of America to become leaders of tomorrow.

Each year local preliminary pageants throughout the state crown representatives who compete in the state pageant held in North Platte. In the Miss America System, the contestants are selected on the basis of their talent, intelligence, personality, charm and poise. They are offered outstanding educational opportunities in the form of scholarships of over 45 million dollars annually at the local, state and national levels. In 2007, the Miss Nebraska Program awarded $42,900.00 in cash scholarships and offered $97,000.00 in tuition scholarships.