Spotlight: Katie Strain, Miss Goldsboro 2024 | Miss North Carolina Organization

Talent Category: Dance (Clogging)

Previous MAO Titles: Miss Charlotte’s OT’s Carolina Princess ’09, Sampson County ’23

Hometown: Lillington, NC

Current Schooling: A graduate from Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education K-6th. Currently a 2nd grade school teacher at Overhills Elementary School.

What are your scholastic and/or career ambitions? Pursue a masters degree in Administration and become a middle school athletic director. As well as create a program that educates and intermingles mainstream students with EC students in our K-12 schools. However, my dream job would be to become a neonatal nurse. I was 4lbs and 4oz when I was born. I’ve always thought about becoming a neonatal nurse so I could help families like mine that have premature babies. Who knows, maybe that’ll happen one day!

Community Service Initiative (CSI): I Love Myself

What are some objectives you have as a titleholder? Often in the classroom, I hear “I can never get it right!”, “I’m not smart,” and “I can’t!” But in my classroom we learn to love ourselves. Here’s what my student Kara had to say:
“I like myself because nobody can judge me. Another thing is funny stories or not they will be told. If someone says my clothes, look bad, I can say nobody can tell me what to wear. And I love myself, no matter what my clothes are, or what my hair is. I love myself, no matter what I look like.“ I was moved and motivated by Kara’s work and found her words very powerful when most students couldn’t identify what they truly loved about themselves. This lead me to believe that something needed to be done. Based on Kara’s writing a song was created titles “I Love Myself”
Self worth is one of those skills that gets overlooked all too often. Self worth should be explicitly taught in the classroom the same way academic skills are.
My goal as Miss Goldsboro is to continue to promote and share the importance of self worth. Also to work with educators in Wayne county and those across the state and share the importance of this subject.

What are some interesting facts abut you? First generation college graduate, Full athletic college scholarship recipient, 2 sport collegiate athlete, top 10 in school’s collegiate history for most stolen bases in a single season, 2021-2022 Overhills Elementary School Rookie Teacher of the Year, favorite number – unlucky 13

What do you enjoy doing for fun? When not working, I love to see my students thrive outside of the classroom. I love to go and see their extracurricular activities and interest they participate in. I’m a firm believer in building relationships and showing them that I care more about they person they are and not just the student they are in my classroom. I also love watching college softball and gymnastics events. As well as going to the beach with friends and family during the summer!