Miss North Dakota, Ashley Young, mingled with third-graders at Jefferson School on Wednesday. She later visited students in all the rooms at the school. She also visited the other schools on Tuesday in Valley City.As Miss North Dakota, her platform is how to stop bullying. (Jean Schlegel/VCTR) 

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

Miss North Dakota had a message for Jefferson School students on Wednesday: “What you do today affects tomorrow.”
Ashley Young of Grand Forks was in Valley City the past two days, visiting students here to promote her campaign to stop bullying in schools.
Young, a North Dakota State University music student and a graduate of Grand Forks Red River High School, is working on a doctorate degree and plans to become a professor of musicology.
She told the students how she was picked on when she was a fifth-grader and cried every day after school. Students who picked on her were using a form of bullying, she said.

For more on this story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record