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Dania Patricia Prince Méndez (born February 10, 1980) is a Honduran model and beauty queen who has held the title of Miss Earth 2003.

Biography

Early life

Dania was born in Choluteca, Choluteca, Honduras. She is the third child of Andres Prince, a British merchant, and Luisa Méndez, a housewife. She obtained her bachelor's degree, majoring in international commerce.

Married life

On October 4, 2008, at the age of 28, Dania married fellow Honduran, Frank Fuentes, in a Christian ceremony at Christ Almighty church in North Miami Beach, Miami, Florida.

Career

After winning Miss Earth in 2003, Prince became a model.

Pageantry

Prior to Miss Earth

In 1998, Prince, who is 1.85 m tall, won the Miss Honduras pageant and went to compete as her country's representative in the Miss Universe 1998 pageant, which was won by Wendy Fitzwilliam of Trinidad and Tobago in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 12, 1998. In the 1998 Top Model of the World contest, she became a finalist and a recipient of the Best in National Costume award. She competed and won the Pacific International Queen 1998. She then went on to win Miss América Latina 2000 in November 1999 as well.

Miss Earth 2003

In 2003, she was chosen to represent Honduras in the third edition of the international Miss Earth pageant. At the conclusion of the competition, she was crowned as Miss Earth, the third winner in the history of the competition; her triumph in Miss Earth 2003 made her as the first-ever Honduran to win a major international beauty title.

After winning the Miss Earth pageant in 2003, she recounts, “In kindergarten, my classmates chose me to become the muse of our class. But it never crossed my mind that from a class muse, I’d become Miss Earth. Nothing really is impossible in this world. To actually live a dream, you have to do something about it. Have faith in yourself first. Everything else will follow!”

As Miss Earth, she became an environmental ambassador in the Philippines, she addressed environmental issues and spearheaded activities such as the “Caravan for Mother Earth with Miss Earth” in lined with the advocacy program by the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Philippines for North Luzon (OPNL) entitled “Go North: The Ocean and Jungle Escapade.”

When asked by the media how she would differentiate Miss Universe from Miss Earth pageant, she stated, “Beauty, body, and brains of the candidates are given a lot of emphasis in Miss Universe and it is more commercialized. On the other hand, Miss Earth is cause-oriented. If you can still recall, a lot of beautiful and popular candidates from countries that usually win in international pageants surprisingly didn’t make it in the semifinal round of Miss Earth last year. The judges, most likely, were looking for the ‘sincerity factor’ rather than the ‘X-factor’ in a candidate, which perhaps they saw in me.”

References

1. Perfect Miss - beauty pageant statistics: MISS EARTH 2001-20067 Archived 2008-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Miss Afghanistan wins award at Miss Earth". Archived from the original on 2012-04-27. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
3. "CNN.com - Beauty prize for Miss Afghanistan - Nov. 10, 2003". Archived from the original on April 30, 2008.
4. ^ Yazon, Giovanni Paolo J. (26 September 2007). "From class muse to global beauty". Eye Candy, Manila Standard Today. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
5. Gámez, Sabino (2008-10-03). "La reina se casa hoy:Dania Prince contrae nupcias esta tarde en Miami con Frank Fuentes". La Prensa, Honduras. Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
6. "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Local News". Archived from the original on 2008-09-06. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
7. ^ Manila Standard: The Future is Ours
8. Gámez, Sabino (2009-02-06). "Dania Prince ya es mamá (La ex reina y modelo dio a luz el domingo. La bebé se llama Mía Valentina)". La Prensa, Honduras. Archived from the original on 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
9. Honduras This Week National Archived 2005-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
10. Lo, Ricky (2004-09-13). "Dayanara open to doing projects in RP". Philippine Star. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
11. Tordesillas, Cesar E. (4 September 2004). "Outgoing Ms. Earth is now an outspoken environmentalist". The Manila Times. Retrieved 1 June 2020.

External links

• Official Miss Earth web site
• Miss Earth Foundation

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Winfred Omwakwe	Miss Earth 2003	Succeeded by Priscilla Meirelles
Preceded byAline Resende	Miss América Latina 2000	Succeeded byGrace Martins

• 1980 births
• Honduran beauty pageant winners
• Honduran models
• Honduran people of British descent
• Living people
• Miss Earth winners
• Miss Universe 1998 contestants
• People from Choluteca Department
• Miss Earth 2003 contestants