NATCHEZ — Even though she spends most of her year away attending college at Mississippi State University, 20-year-old Natchez native Kera Fennix always remembers where she comes from.

In less than a month, Fennix will be representing her hometown at the 2011 Mississippi Miss Hospitality Pageant with a chance to serve one full year as the state’s goodwill ambassador.

She will also compete for scholarships, with $100,000 going home to the winner.

“Being Miss Hospitality just means being someone who has a warm invite,” she said. “You see someone that will speak to you and hold a conversation with you. It’s just someone who makes you feel like you are home.”

Fennix will travel to Hattiesburg July 24 to start a week of preparations leading up to the pageant on July 29 and 30. The pageant will feature approximately 30 other 18-to-24-year-old women across the state all competing for the crown.

“I am going in expecting to win,” she said. “I want to be a great ambassador and win the title so I can travel around Mississippi to fulfill my duties as Miss Hospitality.”

Fennix said the pageant has been around since 1949, and it exists to honor and utilize young ladies in the state for the purpose of promoting the state’s tourism, industry and economic development by serving as the state’s goodwill ambassador.

Fennix said each woman in the pageant has to promote their city the best through a series of interviews, dress competitions and even a 90-second speech about how to promote tourism in her city.

“I am going to promote my city in the best way I know how,” she said. “I just want to represent the beautiful City of Natchez in the best way possible.”

Fennix said she hopes to take home the crown so she can bring back a sense of pride to Natchez.

“I miss this place when I am gone to school,” she said. “There is just a beauty in Natchez you can’t find any where else.”

Fennix said she is excited to continue her pageant preparations to show the state what Natchez has to offer.

Fennix said she is enjoying her time working at Britton & Koontz Bank until classes start back up again, but that she just can’t stop thinking about the upcoming pageant.

“I really just can’t wait to get this pageant started,” she said. “That is what I have been looking forward to all summer long.”

Fennix is studying communications with a focus on broadcasting at MSU, and she is also attending classes at Copiah-Lincoln Community College this summer to stay ahead of her schoolwork.

Fennix is the daughter of Natalie and Jerry Lyles and Kerry Fennix.