A teacher wins Miss Kentucky pageant

Hannah Edelen won the crown of Miss Kentucky at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center on June 18, 2022 and will represent the commonwealth at the Miss America pageant in Connecticut later this year. The Covington teacher and Northern Kentucky University graduate succeeds to Miss Kentucky 2021, Haley Wheeler for this crown.  The Springfield, Ky. native adds another significant accomplishment to her impressive resume.

According to Edelen, a man named Reuben Harness approached her seven years ago telling her that Kentucky needed to hear her story and encouraging her to one day compete on the Miss Kentucky stage.  “I wasn’t always able to participate in the program because of financial resources,” said Edelen. “I always wanted to compete and decided to take a chance on myself a couple years ago.”Four years later, Edelen took a chance and signed up for her first preliminary. This year, she competed in Harness’s preliminary, which was the Miss Danville Scholarship Organization. During this competition, she was selected as a title holder, which led her to the Miss Kentucky competition.

When the crown of Miss Kentucky was placed on her head, “I couldn’t help but think about all the people who really helped me to where I am today,” she said.

The unlikely journey to pageant queen and sought-after teacher began in a troubled household where her mother’s battle with a brain tumor and her father’s disability led to financial and domestic strife. “My brother and I, we saw a lot of how that affected their livelihood and well-being,” Edelen said. “It really hurt us growing up, and we had our own challenges.”

Looking for something new, Edelen decided to head north to attend Northern Kentucky University where she was elected student body president and became her family’s first member to earn a bachelor’s degree. She graduated from Northern Kentucky University, where she earned a dual degree in communication studies and history with minors in organizational leadership and honors. Through the program Teach for America, Edelen took an alternative path to becoming a certified teacher and taught sixth grade at Holmes Middle School in Covington after previously serving as an instructional assistant at Covington Independent Public Schools.  According to Edelen’s LinkedIn profile, she is the first in her low-income family to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. She also has represented her sorority, Kappa Delta.

Edelen went on to become a sixth-grade social studies teacher at the Covington Independent School District from January 2020 to June 2022.

Edelen received a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky in educational policy studies. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. in educational studies at UK. She is also currently a candidate for the Covington board of education in the November election this year.

And though pageants are widely known for fancy gowns, sashes and make-up, for Edelen, Miss Kentucky is also an opportunity to extend her work in education.

For this pageant, the Edelen’s Social Impact Initiative is the program Read Ready Kentucky, a literacy effort encouraging young learners to take up books. At Miss America, Edelen will expand her platform as Read Ready America.

And while education is her professional and pageant focus, Edelen’s knack for clogging also boosted her score in the talent portion of the evening. “I’m hoping for my students that they see this as an example of how to look at their own life,” Edelen said. “A lot of our students have a lot of adversities. All throughout my time at Covington, I always told my kids to never let their environment define who they are or what their future will look like, but to define it themselves.” Edelen hopes that by sharing her personal story of overcoming obstacles and adversity in her early life and then succeeding as a student and professional inspires others.

“Someone like me who came from small-town Kentucky to be on a national stage and what that kind of narrative says for all kids across Kentucky, I’m fully aware of societal barriers we have in place that restrict kids from accessing certain spaces and I think it’s so important that we have representation of young people who have overcome obstacles,” she said.

During her time as Miss Kentucky, Edelen will also be the spokesperson for Kentucky Proud, which is a program that promotes agriculture across Kentucky.

It’s a position that other women wanted, but Edelen said that those competitors on stage with her over the weekend bonded closely and supported one another, even though only one would wear the crown.

“Oftentimes, when we think of pageantry, we think these women were cut from these perfect lives, and that’s just not true,” she said. “I think this past Miss Kentucky class that I competed with were just shining examples of female empowerment, through and through. I had the most amazing week with the most encouraging women. It brings joy to my heart to see the smiles on their faces in support of me. When I turned around and looked at the girls, it was just a really special moment for me.”

In addition to all of her accomplishments in life and through being a teacher, Edelen is also a children’s author. She wrote the book, “Hank the Horse and the Case of the Missing Eggs,” which is about a horse who goes on a journey to discover the power of information literacy skills. The book published in March and always available for purchase on Amazon.in March published Hank  Edelen says she worked with her childhood friend, Shelby Sawyer, who created the artwork within the book. Click here to purchase the book on Amazon.

Her second book is titled Hank the Horse and Kentucky Proud which will be a story about Kentucky agriculture.