Madison Marsh, 22, a master’s student in the Harvard Kennedy School’s public policy department and a second lieutenant in the US Air Force, won the 2024 Miss America pageant on Sunday night in Orlando, Florida. As the first-ever active-duty Air Force officer to win the national title, Ms. Marsh made history while representing Colorado.
“Everything is possible for you to accomplish. Ms. Marsh stated in an interview posted on Miss America’s Instagram account that “the sky is not the limit and the only person that’s stopping you is yourself.”
She continued by saying that anyone could enter the pageant world if she, who came from “a small town, not being part of the pageant,” could.
While attending the academy, Marsh began competing in pageants.
“My cousin had competed in pageants for a long time, and one of the big things about it that I love is the community service aspect and the focus on public speaking,” she said in a November interview with the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Since 2018, Marsh has been using the Whitney Marsh Foundation, which she founded in honor of her mother, to raise money and awareness for pancreatic cancer research. The foundation has raised over a quarter of a million dollars through events like 5K and 10K runs held in her hometown of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
In the November interview, Marsh stated, “My mom was a huge runner, even when she was going through chemotherapy treatments.”
Although Marsh is most recognized for her participation in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, her appearances in Massachusetts will undoubtedly be as a graduate student attending the Harvard Kennedy School to pursue a master’s degree in public policy.
