BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Receiving honors and national recognition is nothing new for Bradford County Agriculture Teacher Kaitlin Van Heusen, but she’s discovered that having a crown on your head is what really grabs people’s attention.
Van Heusen won the title of National Ms. United States Agriculture at the Miss United States Agriculture pageant, which was held June 24-25 in Orlando.
“Did I ever think I would win a pageant? No, but I like this program a lot because it allows you to advocate for agriculture with a crown and sash,” Van Heusen said. “Somebody once told me you would be surprised at how many doors a crown and sash open. I thought they weren’t serious. It’s true.
“I’ve won national teaching titles. People are like, ‘Oh, OK. You won a national teaching title.’ You win a crown, and people are like, ‘Whoa!’”
In some ways, Van Heusen was stepping outside of her comfort zone. She said she’s participated in only one other pageant, which was 15 years ago. She said she didn’t do well.
Yet the pageant also gave her the opportunity to do something she’s plenty comfortable with — talking about a subject she’s passionate about. She answered questions about such things as agricultural technology and the biggest issues in agriculture today.
Van Heusen’s pageant platform — or cause — was to bring awareness to the loss of farmland due to urbanization.
“When we lose it to development and things like that, we lose the ability to feed people,” she said.
A balance must be found, protecting farmland and still meeting the needs of urbanization, Van Heusen said. Also, spaces transformed by urbanization but no longer utilized — empty lots, for example — can be used agriculturally.
“There’s so much technology today with hydroponics and things like that,” Van Heusen said. “We can turn those into good growing spaces. We can turn those into productive spaces and still produce food.”
Why not?
Van Heusen was attending an FFA convention when someone she was talking to said she should consider competing in the pageant. It would allow Van Heusen to rely upon her knowledge of agriculture and not have to worry about coming up with some kind of talent, as is the case with a lot of pageants.
In thinking about it, Van Heusen figured she may as well try. If she didn’t win, she still had plenty on her plate. Aside from teaching and serving as FFA adviser, she serves on multiple ag-education boards and will be the president-elect of the Florida Association of Agriculture Educators (a three-year commitment).
“I decided, let’s give it a shot,” Van Heusen said.
The pageant consists of nine age divisions, starting with Tiny Miss for ages 0-3 and ending with Elite Ms. for ages 36 and up. The Ms. division Van Heusen competed in is for ages 22-35.
Van Heusen was one of eight Ms. division participants. She said the pageant consisted of 93 total in all age divisions.
Participants were judged in the categories of on-stage introduction, on-stage question, interview, photogenic, formal wear and state fun fashion. State fun fashion is dressing in a way to represent your state.
“Of course, being from Bradford County, I chose strawberries,” Van Heusen said. “I found a cute strawberry dress, and I had a basket full of strawberries.”
The talking portions of the pageant didn’t bother Van Heusen. She can talk about agriculture all day, she said.
What made her nervous was moving on stage.
“A lot of the girls were scared of speaking on stage. I was scared of walking on stage,” Van Heusen said. “Anyone who knows me knows I can’t even walk on flat surfaces.”
She couldn’t help thinking about the movie “Miss Congeniality” and the scene where Gracie Hart, played by Sandra Bullock, takes a fall.
“That’s what I said the whole time,” Van Heusen said. “This is going to be ‘Miss Congeniality’ right here. I’m going to face plant on stage.”
She didn’t fall, but maybe that was because her mind was elsewhere. As she was preparing to go on stage, she was taking phone calls about the Bradford ag program’s tractor being stolen and found later hit by a train.
“I was running that mess through my head as they were calling my name,” Van Heusen said. “The emcee was like, ‘Walk forward,’ because I wasn’t paying attention.”
Her focus shifted more toward the pageant as the finalists were announced. When she was among the remaining two in the running for the title, Van Heusen said that’s when she began to realize she could win.
Still, it was hard to believe the crown went to her.
“When they announced it, it was pure shock,” Van Heusen said. “I was not prepared for that.”
Van Heusen also placed first in the individual areas of introduction, interview and photogenic.
An additional ag-related avenue
For Van Heusen, the pageant was always viewed as yet another way for her to be involved as an advocate for agriculture-related issues. As Ms. United States Agriculture, she looks for opportunities and accepts invitations to visit fairs and other ag-related events and to tour farms and promote them via social media.
She’s also managing an agritourism page for the pageant as well as lending any assistance she can to the other pageant winners.
“It’s just promoting as much as I can, advocating and helping any of the other girls,” Van Heusen said.
Even if she hadn’t won, Van Heusen would’ve enjoyed the fact that she was a part of providing college opportunities for youth. Participants sold advertisements for the pageant’s program, helping to raise $15,000 that will be awarded in scholarships.
“My division, while we don’t get money out of it, we raise money, especially for the Miss division and the younger divisions because those are the girls who are going into college,” Van Heusen said. “We want them to stick around in ag.”
Through her participation, Van Heusen also met a lot of people representing various areas in agriculture — contacts she might find helpful as an agriculture educator.
Simply put, Van Heusen lives and breathes agriculture. It’s why she teaches it, why she serves on multiple ag-related boards, why she enters contests for national teaching honors and why she entered the pageant.
Plus, Van Heusen works on the Bradford ag farm as well as maintaining the greenhouse behind the ag classrooms at North Florida Technical College.
She has a lot to keep up with.
“I have a calendar on my fridge, a calendar on my phone and a planner,” Van Heusen said. “It’s the only way I keep up with my life right now.”
People have asked when she finds time to sleep, but Van Heusen said her life isn’t overwhelming. The key is to think in advance.
“I plan out my whole next month of what I’ve got going. It’s planning things out. It’s making lists,” Van Heusen said, adding, “You have to plan in advance to juggle this much.”
The benefit isn’t just that she plays a role as an agriculture advocate. It helps her as a teacher who’s trying to motivate students.
“They always tell us if you want your kids to be active in FFA, then you need to be active in your professional organizations,” Van Heusen said. “When kids see an adult who’s motivated and wants to push themselves and wants to encourage them to do as well, a lot of times they step up to plate and say, ‘Hey, I want to try that.’
“If they see somebody putting in the effort, a lot of kids will put in the same effort.”
Participating in a pageant, though? That was hard for some of her students to fathom. Van Heusen said when she told them, some laughed and remarked about how they had just seen her diving after a chicken that got loose.
Her students have seen her get dirty, working with animals or crawling through mud at fairs.
“Usually, I’m covered in God knows what,” Van Heusen said.
Van Heusen laughed and said that thanks to the pageant, her students saw that there’s actually a person underneath the layers of dirt, etc.
“They saw that Miss V can clean up,” she said.
If you’d like to keep abreast of what Van Heusen is doing in her role of Ms. United States Agriculture, please visit her Facebook page, “Kaitlin Van Heusen-2022 National Ms. United States Agriculture.”
To learn more about Miss United States Agriculture, visit missusag.org.
