Miss Kentucky Hannah Edelen is a former middle school teacher, school board candidate and third runner-up in a pig-calling contest. (Rob Metzger Photography)
If you think you might have an idea what new Miss Kentucky Hannah Edelen might be like, chances are your perceptions are wrong because I know mine were.
Edelen won the Miss Danville competition last August to qualify for the state pageant and event organizers told me how special she was long before she won the Miss Kentucky crown.
I got a chance to spend time with her recently and came away impressed. I will be sharing a series of stories about her in the next few months as she represents our state working for the Department of Agriculture and also competing in the Miss America competition in December.
But here are just a few reasons Edelen, a Washington County native, is not at all like what you might expect a Miss Kentucky to be.
— She was an instructional assistant at Holmes Middle School for one year and then a sixth grade social studies and English language arts teacher the last two years at the same school.
“Miss Kentucky is a full-time job but in many ways Miss Kentucky is a full-time teacher,” Edelen said. “She is the spokesperson for Kentucky Proud and she goes into all sorts of schools, so to me it feels like an extension of my job as a teacher.”
— She was student body president at Northern Kentucky University and was the commencement speaker.
“They felt compelled by my story. In my commencement speech I talked a lot about being a disruptor and how I had disrupted a lot of what was expected of me and continue to disrupt the status quo,” Edelen said. “I am not afraid to speak my mind and challenge when things feel unfair.”
“I went to Northern because I wanted to challenge myself in a new environment. I always said I wanted to be near more people than cows. I grew up with cattle all around. With Cincinnati in the backyard, I saw it as a new opportunity to challenge myself and be more independent. I love my family dearly but I did want to fly on my own a little bit and see where that would take me.”
— Included in highlighted facts on her resume is one about being third runner-up in a pig calling contest at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Danville.
“I had two pot-bellied pigs on our farm and have always loved animals,” she said. “At the Bourbon Festival, they had pig snout costume nose pieces they were giving out and I am a sucker for costumes because I like to dress up.”
“So when they were giving out the pig snouts, you had to be in the pig-calling contest to get one so I got up on stage, gave a pig call and did a pretty good job apparently.”
— She filed for a spot on the Covington City Commission but changed her mind after she gave up her teaching job and is now a Covington school board candidate in the November election.
“My passion is in education. When I was running for commission it was with the goal of partnering with our school district and city to further our goals as a district. We have a great local program called Read Ready Covington which is what my social impact initiative is inspired by,” Edelen said.
“I got a really great opportunity at the University of Kentucky and even some other school districts, so I decided to exit Covington Independent School District and what that did was open the door for me to run for school board. I can still be an advocate for my students.”
“I have been their teacher for three years and there are lots of changes I want to see done in that community. With my Masters in education policy, I feel like I have the expertise and experience to help make some of those outcomes better for our kids.”
— She was the first person in her family to graduate from college and relishes the underdog role she’s had most of her life. She even compares herself to recent Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike, an 80-1 long-shot.
“We both didn’t have the best starting positions but we didn’t let those odds define our outcomes. We didn’t always have the most resources but we stayed prepared for when it was our time to shine. I really feel a lot like Rich Strike on Derby Day,” she said. “I am just an underdog type of girl.”
— She is a sports fan, but not a huge, die-hard type of fan.
“I was in band at Washington County (High School). I was in the color guard my sophomore to senior years and really loved that experience,” she said. “I like to run for myself to have time to reflect on things. I would love to get involved in some 5Ks (she hopes to be a the Jingle Bell Jog in Stanford Dec. 4). I have two Goldendoodles who love to run.”
“I also love cycling. Cloggers usually have knee issues (clogging was her talent at the Miss Kentucky competition) and cycling gives a great cardio exercise that is easy on the knees.”
She says she is both a UK fan — she got her Masters degree at UK — and Louisville — she met the current president and says she is phenomenal.
“There is a little bit of divide between the Wildcats and Cardinals with me,” Edelen said. “I do like to watch UK but I don’t have a lot of leisure time so I don’t see a lot of games.”
“I have been working on a project for a little time with the Northern Kentucky University basketball team. They are going to do a books and basketball campaign for me. It’s important that kids see leaders and athletes reading, so I hope to find more ways to do things like that in the next year.”
