Students at a Colorado Springs elementary school got the chance to meet and speak with the newly-crowned Miss America on Wednesday.

Air Force 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh, the first active-duty service member to don the Miss America crown, stopped by Jackson Elementary School to visit classrooms and speak at an assembly.

Marsh, who graduated from the Air Force Academy in June, is a familiar face within the halls of Jackson Elementary, going back to her time as a cadet, when she made several visits to read to students and participate in activities like Technology Day.

“Over the last few years, as a cadet with the Air Force Academy, she has read to our kids and done several activities with them,” Miller said. “But she has also talked with them about her career path and her goals for the future. Now, our students get to see her again, but this time, wearing the Miss America crown.”

As an Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) school, Jackson staff members focus on helping students develop organizational and critical thinking skills that will serve them throughout their school years and beyond, Miller said.

“Really, our biggest focus is getting our students ready for middle school, and giving them some of the skills they’ll need to graduate from high school — essentially, teaching them how to be students,” she said. “But we’re also in a population where very few of our families have gone to college, so we also want our students to start thinking about college as a possible option at an early age.”

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for Marsh, who barely had time to comprehend her Miss America victory before she was swept off to New York for interviews with national news outlets.

When she returned to Colorado Springs, she made sure that Jackson was her first visit.

“I couldn’t wait to come back so I could see you guys again,” she told Jackson students.

“Kids are initially taken aback by this tall beautiful woman in a military uniform,” said Monica Slabach, Jackson Elementary’s theater teacher. “But then she starts to talk with them, and engage with them, and the kids just love her.”

Slabach and Marsh have known each other for years, going back to when Marsh was an Academy cadet and Slabach was the reigning Miss Colorado.

“She was just starting to compete in pageants when she reached out to me, looking for guidance and advice,” Slabach said. “We’ve gotten to know each other, and she’s a pretty amazing woman.”

On Wednesday, Marsh, wearing her new crown and sash, sat in classrooms and answered questions from eager Jackson youngsters, many of whom remembered her from prior visits. She asked what the kids wanted to be when they grow up and was encouraging and supportive of their answers — including a first-grade girl who said she wants to be a “ballet fighter.”

During an assembly in the Jackson gymnasium, Marsh encouraged all the students to follow their dreams.

“When I was little, I wanted to be so many things,” she said.

“At one point I wanted to be a marine biologist. Or maybe a doctor. Or an astronaut. Or a cook. And even though those things have changed over time, there was one thing that remains, and that is believing in myself.”

In addition to her Miss America duties, the Air Force officer is currently enrolled in graduate school at Harvard University. When that’s done, she plans to begin pilot training. She also continues to advocate for pancreatic cancer awareness and research through the Whitney Marsh Foundation, the nonprofit she founded after her mother succumbed to the disease in 2018.

“I think that, 30 years from now, Miss America will be a bullet point on a long list of things that she has accomplished,” Slabach said.

Marsh said she feels blessed to have a national platform for her advocacy and her message of optimism.

“You can be anything you want to be,” Marsh told Jackson Elementary kids on Wednesday. “You can be an athlete, or a pilot, or an astronaut, or a doctor. You can do all of it … and more.”