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By Cassandra Castillo, Staff Writer Jan 30, 2024 APTOPIX Miss America 2024
Confetti rains down on Madison Marsh, Miss Colorado, as she is crowned Miss America 2024 at the end of the pageant, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Behind the blond hair, blue eyes and a bright smile of Miss America 2024 is a woman who holds Second Lieutenant officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Madison Marsh is the first active duty member to hold the crown. The Colorado native went on as a finalist among 51 contestants representing the 50 states in addition to Washington D.C. on Jan. 14.
Brooke Johnson — a biology pre-professional major at UTC — watched the entire pageant with excitement. As a pageant attendee herself, she was inspired by how multifaceted Marsh is by being a student, an active duty officer, and now being titled Miss America.
Johnson was crowned Miss Tennessee Teen USA her freshman year of college in 2022.
“Just by her being a female in a male dominated field I can resonate with her, and being a female in that and just having to stay motivated and go after things, even when you are surrounded by people that don't necessarily look like you,” Johnson said. “You have to go through different challenges.”
Daniela Marchetta is a masters student studying criminal justice at UTC while in the ROTC program as well as the National Guard. She also works full-time for a marketing company.
As a woman obtaining her second masters degree, she can attest to the duality of being a student and a woman in the military.
“A woman could do anything if she puts her mind to it,” Marchetta said.
In a male dominated career, she remembers when a female sergeant in law enforcement police academy told her that if she broke a nail or got her period, she should just walk it off.
“I remember the first day I sat there in that class in orientation, and a sergeant said…’I don't care if you break a nail. I don't care if you get your period…you're in a male dominated career. You're gonna act like a man.’”
Women make up only 16% of the military today.
Marchetta was impressed by Marsh’s new title of Miss America and resonates with her in that one day she will be a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
“I would personally think that it will be rough, but at the same time, if you are truly passionate about serving your country you can do anything that you can do,” Marchetta said. “I guess that kind of does inspire me a little bit to kind of take more risks in achieving my desires and my own goals.”
Marchetta’s goals consist of working for the CIA in her future. As a commuter from Knoxville, TN, she begins her day at 3am and practices discipline and balance in her day-to-day life.
“When I look at Miss America, accomplishing both goals, that's exactly how I like to put [me] in her shoes a little bit because I am working on the same goal,” Marchetta said. “I'm not saying it's gonna take me long to get there — it's right around the corner — even if I have to make this commute just to work hard at achieving a goal. Why not? It's worth it.”
Moreover, the Miss America pageant is not only a pageant to show off the beauty and fitness of each contestant but also their education and what they stand for.
Johnson added that an important part of pageantry and what she has taken with her is interview skills and public speaking. She has competed in the Miss USA system and Miss America, but she noted that the latter places more emphasis on education and sisterhood.
The Miss America organization brands itself as the “nation’s leading advocate for women's education and the largest provider of scholarship assistance to young women in the United States.”
Marsh graduated last year from the United States Air Force Academy — where she attended when she began pageantry — with a degree in physics, and now she pursues a master’s degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Johnson and Marchetta are both studying to gain degrees in higher education, but they are also aware of what needs to be done to be a great leader.
For Marsh that was standing up for a cause greater than herself in response to a tragedy.
One of Marsh’s selling points was the discussion round where she discussed the topic of drugs in America and called upon her mother’s passing due to pancreatic cancer.
In 2018, she began raising awareness for pancreatic cancer research through the Whitney Marsh Foundation, a foundation her immediate family founded after her mother’s passing. Here, they have collected a quarter-million dollars through running marathons.
With five finalists left in the competition, their final question was presented as “how has your career equipped you to be our next Miss America” to which Marsh confidently responded with learning, leading and leading with passion — with special emphasis on her military credentials and as founder of the Whitney Marsh Foundation.
“We can still dress cute and wear nice dresses and high heels and I still have nails you know,” Marchetta said. “At the end of the day, it's if you are able to handle the job.”
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