The International Cinderella Scholarship Program, founded in 1976, has grown into the largest and most prestigious scholarship oriented pageant system. Throughout its 40 year history Cinderella has championed the need and value of higher education for women and has promoted that goal by awarding millions of dollars in cash college scholarships to young women from the United States and a host of foreign countries. Cinderella is based on a 3 tiered system of competitions. Participants start out on the Local level and based on their performance can advance to the State level of competition (or national level for foreign countries) and then proceed to the final level of competition, the International Pageant.