Miss New York 2024

Abigail Quammen

My journey in the Miss America Opportunity began just under ten years ago, and I’ve been changed for the better ever since. As a fourteen year old girl with wavering confidence and a desire for consistency in her life, I craved something that would provide me with a purpose. The Miss America Opportunity was that purpose. I would go on to win the title of Miss Kentucky’s Teen 2017 and attend The University of Alabama on the Miss America’s Teen Presidential Scholarship as a Musical Theatre major. At UA, I was surrounded by fellow Miss America titleholders that became life-long friends, I performed on stages I once had only dreamt of, and I developed into a confident, strong, determined, woman that knew she didn’t need a crown to make a difference.

As Miss New York, my mission is to narrow the literacy gap by empowering kids to read and providing them with resources to do so. I’ve been developing my community service initiative, Read → Lead → Succeed, for the majority of the ten years I’ve been a part of the Miss America Opportunity. When I was 12, my family lost our home, and during this period of extreme fear, the one constant that kept me afloat was reading. I read cookbooks, my grandmother’s sewing books, fiction, non-fiction, and whatever else was on our bookshelves at the time. As a lifelong champion of a child’s right to read, I am living proof that reading is the key to unlocking your full potential, leading your life in the direction of your dreams, and securing the success you deserve. I currently run after-school programs throughout title one public schools, surrounding kids with a literacy-rich environment and early reading skills so they can ace their reading tests and live the lives of their dreams. I’m a one-on-one tutor through Reading Partners, a children’s literacy non-profit focused on children 6+ months behind in reading level, and I have run a nationwide social media reading challenge called Book Buddies that allows kids to pick a buddy, pick a book, and summarize the story together, providing them with comprehension and conflict resolution skills.

When I’m not advocating for a child’s right to read, I’m a career fundraiser and Master of Business Administration candidate at New York University. As a fundraiser, I’m a human connector, maintaining relationships and building new ones with individuals that have a desire to leave behind a lasting legacy by donating towards scholarships for students just like me. I give all credit to the Miss America Opportunity for leading me down this career path. As an MBA candidate, my specialization is leadership and change management. My ultimate goal is to be a catalyst for change in the education sphere and serve as the Executive Vice President of Programs for a major philanthropic foundation, creating programming for defunct libraries and title one public schools that provide students with an educationally equitable environment.

I’m so invigorated to do this work because I understand that it is not about me. It’s a vessel to serve the place and people I love, and for that I’m grateful. Throughout my year as Miss New York, I look forward to prioritizing my efforts to provide children across the 700 school districts in New York with opportunities to further their foundational literacy skills as well as utilizing my meaningful connections to raise a record number of dollars for the Miss New York Organization. Most of all, I plan to make sure that each person I interact with, whether it be through a screen or face-to-face, not only feels like they know Miss New York, but they are friends with Miss New York.