By Hope Kiehl
When I step into my classroom each morning, I am reminded of why I first fell in love with Family and Consumer Science (FCS). It is about equipping students with the real-world skills that build confident, capable adults. As a fifth-year FCS educator, I teach lessons on everything from financial literacy to communication, nutrition and child development.
Beyond the curriculum, my goal is to empower students to lead with purpose, a mission that extends far beyond the walls of my classroom.
That same mission inspired me to compete in scholarship pageants. I have been fortunate to serve as the United States of America’s Miss New Jersey 2023, Miss New Jersey Volunteer 2024 and now as Miss Central Jersey Coastline 2026 in the Miss America Organization. Each of these roles has allowed me to connect my love of education with a broader platform for community service, leadership and advocacy.
Through the Miss Volunteer America Organization, I represented New Jersey at the national competition in Tennessee, earned the Academic Achievement Award, and completed hundreds of hours of community service while teaching full time and completing my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Western Governors University.
My community service initiative, Leading a Lifetime of Life Skills, reflects my passion for helping others develop the tools needed to thrive in life, work and relationships. Through workshops, blog posts and volunteer partnerships, I have been able to bring life skills education beyond the classroom and into communities across the state.
One of my proudest collaborations has been with Best Buddies New Jersey, where I helped create accessible financial literacy and communication lessons for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Seeing the joy and confidence these lessons brought to participants reminded me why I became a teacher in the first place.
Pageantry often gets misunderstood as being solely about gowns and crowns. For me, it has been a platform for leadership, advocacy and education. I have earned multiple academic scholarships through my involvement, which have supported my continued education and professional growth as a teacher.
Balancing my classroom and my service roles has been an exercise in time management, empathy and resilience, which are the very skills I teach my students daily. Whether I am standing in front of my class or on a stage speaking to an audience, my message is the same: Education and empowerment go hand in hand.
Through both teaching and pageantry, I have learned that leadership is not about a title. It is about service. As educators, we have the privilege and responsibility of helping others discover their own potential. That, to me, is the true definition of leading a lifetime of life skills.
Hope Kiehl is a Family and Consumer Science teacher at North Hunterdon Regional High School. She can be reached at kiehl.hope@gmail.com.