Miss Kentucky Shares Journey with Seventh Graders

Ariana Rodriguez – a 20-year-old from Bardstown who grew up in foster care and now wears the crown of Miss Kentucky – uses her statewide platform to encourage young people who connect with her story of resilience, hope, and perseverance. 

She recently spent some time at Leestown Middle School during National FFA Week. In her official role, she serves as a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, but her main message for our seventh graders flowed from her community service initiative. “If you figure out your purpose, everything else will fall into place,” she told the teens gathered in the gym that Wednesday afternoon. 

Rodriguez recounted how after entering the foster care system at age 5, she moved over 20 times during the next several years. She later stayed in an abandoned house with no electricity or running water and then lived out of a car. “I remember feeling like a number, like I didn’t matter. People were making decisions about my life and I had no control,” she said, adding, “Statistically speaking, I should be in prison or homeless.” 

Instead, two years after high school, Rodriguez placed in the Top 10 of the Miss America contest. Despite having repeatedly fallen short in Kentucky’s regional competitions, she stuck with it because she saw pageant scholarships as her best route to college. “My whole life had focused on surviving. I did my best with what I could control,” she recalled. “And then I started thinking ‘Why not me?’”

Despite the long odds, Rodriguez has matured under pressure as she relentlessly pursues her dreams. She started a nonprofit called The Lucky Ones to support children in foster care, and she’s studying social work and psychology at the University of Kentucky. “People see the glitz, the glamour, the crown, and the sash. They don’t think about the person behind it,” Rodriguez said. 

To close at Leestown, she got the students on their feet to shout a series of affirmations, including “I control my destiny!” “I can do anything!” “I am strong!” “I will never give up.” “We are the future.”

She also challenged them to rewire their subconscious mind and make a choice, asking, “Do you want to change your life? And how hard are you willing to work for what you want?”