Madison Marsh

I mean, I would say a lot of my prep overlapped with other areas of my life because I mean, at the Air Force Academy, obviously in any military capacity, you have to be physically fit. So there wasn't ever like a, oh, I need to be fit for stage. It was, I need to be fit year round so I can continue serving in the military.

And then when it came to interview prep, I was already doing interview prep for all of my scholarships that I was applying for. During my time at the Academy, I was an astronaut scholar, ended up becoming a Truman scholar, and then a Rhodes finalist. And those interviews are tough. And I remember every day after school, we had a public speaking lab at the academy for free.

And I would just go in and I would have them grill me on any political question, any question on my resume that they could think of. And so when it came time to prepare for a pageant, I was already doing the work. I was just now showing off the work that I had put in a very different and unconventional way that you don't typically see in the military.

I mean, I've personally always liked the challenge because you feel proud of what you've accomplished when you finish. I mean, think of the people that are Olympians and the work that it took to get into something like that. The people that become the superstars, people that make the breakthroughs in research. None of that came from someone doing something easy.

You don't get greatness from taking the easy path. You get it from the challenge. You get it from the days that you fail and you fall down and you suck at things and you take that and you take your weaknesses and turn it into strengths and you learn from it. You learn from the people that are better than you.

And I think that challenge and wanting to meet that challenge is what makes people into success. That's what gives them that greatness because of that willingness to fail and try again. and get up and try again until you get it right. And I think that comes with anything, but at the end of it, you also have to be passionate about what you're doing.

Obviously the military is not going to be for everybody. Pageants aren't going to be for everybody, but I can guarantee everyone has their little niche thing that they're interested in, a passion of theirs. And that's when you pour into that challenge. I mean, for me, I'm really passionate about my nonprofit and all the time I'm trying to figure out

ways that we can be better, figuring out the ways that I've messed up and how I can be a better leader the next time around, the next day, the next week, the next year. And that really applies to anything in your life. So of course, I would love for more people to join the military.

But at the end of it there, if you're not passionate about that, there are definitely other ways to still serve our country and also find that challenge and impact.

There are a lot of things that I think people don't understand, but it's also I don't blame anyone for that. Obviously, the community of pageants is very small. It's just like maybe a lot of people have misconceptions about the military because they're not in the military. It's kind of the same thing. I think a lot of people still have those stereotypes about pageants.

women who compete in pageants that maybe they're very vain or that they might not be very intelligent and i think through competing in pageants i have met some incredibly passionate and intelligent young women who are impacting their communities in so many different ways than i could have ever imagined i mean if you watch

One night of Miss America and listen to the girls talking about their community service initiatives and the ways that they're impacting their communities. It's incredible because that's real work that's going back to hometowns all across America to help people who are in need.

And I love that because one of the things I always spoke to my cadets about at the Air Force Academy is finding ways to serve outside of your uniform.

I think when you're at the academy, you sometimes forget that life exists beyond the black gates and the confines of where you exist and being able to sometimes realize that you can give back to your immediate community and that doesn't have to necessarily come in the form of military service. That could be

showing up to take care of your family, your siblings, your loved ones, coming home for dinner and serving them in that way. Or maybe you're the person that's going to go out and volunteer every Saturday. Or maybe you're going to give up a couple days a month to go volunteer and serve your immediate community in that way. There are a lot of ways that we can interplay that in the military.

And those are lessons that I was also taught from competing in pageants.

Absolutely. I remember my preliminary night question for my community service initiative was to talk about how I saw artificial intelligence interplaying with early detection of pancreatic cancer research. And that's something that you have to answer right on the spot in front of a crowd. And it's going to, by the way, exist on video for the rest of your life.

So you got to hope you don't mess it up. So that's kind of the things you have to prepare for all of the time. And then my finals night question after I'd made the top 11, they actually ended up switching up the way that we did the questions. So they weren't going to be about our community service initiatives anymore. We basically played musical chairs.

And then whatever chair you sat down in, you would hold up the number that was sitting there. And behind you would be a hot topic in America. And mine was about drugs in America. All it says is drugs in America. And you have a minute and a half, I believe, to respond to whoever you fit.

And my specialty, obviously, is not specifically in maybe the drug crisis happening in America, but I had the opportunity and the training to recognize I knew about different types of drugs in America, specifically cancer drug therapies and kind of the ways that we have major gaps in our system, specifically pertaining to pancreatic cancer. And so I had the opportunity to speak on that.