Last year, Alex Francke’s plans of studying abroad over the summer lead her to believe she wouldn’t participate in the Miss America preliminaries she’d been a part of for years.

Saturday afternoon the business management freshman was crowned Miss UK and received her entry into the Miss Kentucky Pageant in June, after a nomination by her Alpha Delta Pi sorority sisters persuaded her to compete.

As a Lexington native who attended the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Francke had many opportunities to explore liberal arts studies, and continued that education in programs like the Governor’s School for the Arts.

She founded the non-profit program Adopt an Art in 2013 to create after school liberal arts programs for elementary schools without the resources and funds to have programs.

“The school I work at right now, Mary Todd, 98 percent of the students there are on the free and reduced lunch program,” Francke said. “What I do is I make sure that it’s offered after school to anybody who wants to come and be a part of it.”

The Fifth Annual Miss UK Pageant sponsored by Delta Tau Delta provides a pathway for women in college or their senior years of high school to compete for one of three titles: Miss Fayette County, Miss Lexington and Miss UK. All three of the women who are crowned receive a $200 scholarship and gain entry into the Miss Kentucky Pageant, the precursor to the Miss America Pageant, with their fees paid.

“Delta Tau Delta was working for a philanthropy event and reached out to the Miss Kentucky organization to franchise a local pageant that would allow them to be eligible to send girls to Miss Kentucky,” Aleigh Oney-Zimmerman, co-director of the pageant, said. “All of these women, I would consider the top 10 of their class. They have a passion for service and … there’s a huge emphasis on scholastic achievement.”

The pageant consisted of a swimsuit, talent and evening gown competition, and ended with the question and answer portion. Each of the contestants also had platforms of community involvement and philanthropy that they promoted.

Miss Fayette County, and NKU graduate MacKenzie Hammond ran on the platform of increasing self-esteem in young gymnasts, which she began after she retired form the sport and began coaching.

“I noticed early on in coaching the girls didn’t have a lot of self esteem,” Hammond said. “I tried boosting them up (saying), ‘You’re the best,’ and then I noticed that language has a very negative effect on other students. I never wanted a girl to walk out of my class and me be the reason she did not continue with gymnastics.”

Hammond researched childhood education and psychology before creating a coaching model that she has incorporated into the classes she teaches. Hammond will be advancing to the Miss Kentucky Pageant as well, along with her friend and veteran pageant participant Emily Sharp.

“I competed before with Emily who won Miss Lexington, so I immediately said congratulations to her the first chance I got,” Hammond said. “It was so cool that we competed months before for the same title, and then here we are competing again and we both won.”

The three women will be competing in the Miss Kentucky pageant in Lexington this June, but competition has yet to deter their friendships.

These aren’t girls who are catty and trying to pull out other people’s hair,” Francke said. “It’s an organization of women who are wanting to succeed, but wanting others to succeed in the process as well.”