Dominican Today reports that Dominican-born belle Paola Nuñez Valdez, 24, was elected Saturday night as the candidate who will represent Canada in the Miss Universe 2015 pageant.

According to the event’s website Nuñez immigrated with her mother to Canada at the age of 10, having prior success in Dominican Republic as a jazz, hip hop, samba and belly dancer as well as having a debut on local television when she was 7. Upon arrival in Canada the beauty queen had to deal with a language barrier, which got her recognition as honor students for her effort to learn English quickly.

The Huffington Post reported on how the Dominican beauty overcame bullying:

She grew up in a musical family, learning to dance at six years old and appearing on television just one year later.

Once in Canada, Valdez was insulted by fellow students at St. Jane Frances elementary school in North York, largely due to her language skills. It was so bad that she hid in a school washroom just to escape it. “I didn’t understand why I was being bullied because I thought I was normal,” she told The Toronto Sun. “Because I don’t speak the same language? Because I dress differently? Maybe to them I look different because I come from another country?”

Valdez eventually overcame the students’ taunts. By the time she made it to high school, she was a member of student council, she played sports and she captained her school’s dance team to a number of titles. [. . .]

For original articles, see http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/people/2015/5/25/55194/Dominican-wins-Miss-Canada-Universe-pageant and http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/05/25/miss-universe-canada-paola-nunez-valdez_n_7437850.html