When Bailey Hodson heard her title announced as Pass up Iowa 2022 at the state pageant June 11, her fingers started shaking and her brain went blank in disbelief.
“I didn’t even know what to do, wherever to go,” Hodson claimed. “I didn’t have this ‘in the bag’ mentality. I didn’t assume it was heading to be me from working day a person, I was definitely just there to have exciting and be happy of the work I put in.”
Hodson, 24, of Berwick, will go on to symbolize Iowa in the Miss out on The united states Pageant in Connecticut this December.
The Grand View College alumna, who majored in English and secondary education and learning, attained a full of $12,750 in scholarships and awards by the Miss Iowa Scholarship Application this yr. That incorporates the Jessica Pray Patel Vocal Scholarship, awarded to the vocalist with the highest talent score — an award that stunned Hodson.
“I constantly feared judgment, since I was under no circumstances educated in vocal effectiveness,” Hodson mentioned. “It was just a little something I did in the shower or car or truck. I loved singing, but I was frightened to do it in front of folks. But if I’m likely to communicate on overcoming your fears and getting your very best self via my initiative, I needed to combat my personal panic of singing in entrance of men and women.”
That’s specifically what she did, profitable over the judges with a rendition of “A Million Desires” from the musical “The Greatest Showman.”
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This was Hodson’s fourth year competing in the Skip Iowa pageant. She was to start with runner-up in 2019, which was “almost certainly one of the coolest activities other than winning,” according to Hodson.
“When they called my identify and having that desire appear to fruition…it was a desire arrive true,” Hodson said. “I was psyched and I couldn’t consider it. I realized that I had appear near ahead of, but the plan of really profitable seemed like it could hardly ever come about, so when it did, it was nuts.”
The competitors provided categories for expertise, an on-stage concern, social-impact pitch and evening put on. The social effect pitch “aids the judges visualize how the candidate will carry her decided on system to a broader scale and viewers,” in accordance to the Skip Iowa web page.
“I think the pitch is my most loved portion, mainly because that is when I acquired to talk about my social impression initiative and almost everything I have by now carried out with it and what I want to do for Iowa,” Hodson mentioned.
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Her social effects initiative is “The ABCs: The Anti-Bullying Campaign,” an concern Hodson became passionate about following she was bullied in superior faculty. She has authored two children’s publications on bullying avoidance.
“I want to employ a curriculum that aids combat the imbalance of ability that arrives with bullying in the classroom,” Hodson said. “As an educator myself, I knew and I’ve been skilled on factors to do for college students, but I realized my colleagues experienced no strategy what to do when bullying transpired. I want to assistance our pupils really feel safer in school rooms and halls and faculties in general.”
Hodson labored as a middle college literacy teacher in Kansas Town, Missouri, right after graduation, before returning to Iowa to get the job done as a seventh grade literacy teacher in the Urbandale Neighborhood School District for the past two years.
She resigned from her Urbandale position — a bittersweet experience for a passionate educator like Hodson — and will invest the next 12 months touring all over the point out, working on her anti-bullying initiative. She hopes to put into action anti-bullying curriculum and tactics in faculties across the state.
“As I became an educator, I saw a larger need, and I saw my pupils going through what I seasoned. I observed that I needed to stage in as an educator to make absolutely sure we’re supporting our pupils,” Hodson mentioned. “Aside from just training, it is hoping to seriously worry this strategy to people today that if we’re just accepting and type and caring to people today, we can minimize the bullying that occurs in general.”
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An Iowa contestant has under no circumstances gained the countrywide Skip America pageant, but winning is far from Hodson’s mind — she is “just so enthusiastic to be there.”
“It truly is a fantastic system that teaches you so lots of important skills that you never even imagine about,” Hodson said. “The Overlook The usa organization has progressed so a lot, striving to arrive absent from this thought of a natural beauty pageant to sturdy impartial women who have occupations. I have discovered so significantly about myself by way of this process and I have acquired so many unique competencies that I never would’ve had the possibility to understand without the need of this corporation.”
Grace Altenhofen is a news reporter for the Des Moines Sign up. She can be achieved at [email protected] or on Twitter @gracealtenhofen.
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