Talking with Miss Kentucky: Ariana Rodriguez

Did you know that the current reigning Miss Kentucky is a foster alum? We spoke with Ariana Rodriguez about her life leading up to the pageant circuit, what motivates her, and how her foundation, The Lucky Ones, is changing foster care experiences for foster kids in Kentucky.

In this episode, we talk about:

• You made history as the first Miss Kentucky to have been in foster care. Can you start from the beginning and give us the story that led to this title?
• What was it like living with your grandparents? What were the positive changes? What was hardest about this time of your childhood? 
• How did that time in kinship care help shape who you are today?
• Were you able to stay in touch with your siblings?
• What gaps or “pain points” for kids in foster care or kinship care did you experience in those years?
• How did these lived experiences begin to transform into a passion or mission for advocacy? Was there a pivotal moment when you said, “This is my platform”?
• What personal strengths emerged from your past that you leaned on (resilience, empathy, leadership, etc.)?
• How do your childhood and care-system experiences continue to inform your daily life, mindset, or choices?
• Are there challenges or triggers that still surface for you because of your past experiences? How do you navigate them?
• What are your relationships with your siblings like now? 
• Tell us more about The Lucky Ones
• Do you have a specific story you can share that illustrates the impact of your work?
• Are you gaining new connections and collaborations to help further the mission of your platform?
• What’s next for you, personally (as Miss Kentucky, as an advocate, as a leader)?
• What’s next for The Lucky Ones? Are there new programs to launch, etc?
• What advice do you have for young people currently in the foster or kinship-care system who may feel uncertain about their future?
• For foster or relative caregivers?
• If you could speak directly to the decision-makers (legislators, social services, educators) about one thing to make a meaningful difference for foster/kinship care kids, what would that be?

Chapters

• 0:48 You made history as the first Miss Kentucky to have been in foster care. Can you start from the beginning and give us the story that led to this title?
• 5:10 What was it like living with your grandparents? What were the positive changes? What was hardest about this time of your childhood?
• 7:08 How did that time in kinship care help shape who you are today?
• 8:06 Were you able to stay in touch with your siblings?
• 9:03 What gaps or “pain points” for kids in foster care or kinship care did you experience in those years?
• 14:02 How did these lived experiences begin to transform into a passion or mission for advocacy? Was there a pivotal moment when you said, “This is my platform”?
• 19:08 What personal strengths emerged from your past that you leaned on (resilience, empathy, leadership, etc.)?
• 22:30 How do your childhood and care-system experiences continue to inform your daily life, mindset, or choices?
• 24:36 Are there challenges or triggers that still surface for you because of your past experiences? How do you navigate them?
• 26:35 Tell us more about The Lucky Ones
• 32:42 What are your relationships with your siblings like now?
• 34:05 Do you have a specific story you can share that illustrates the impact of your work?
• 37:10 Are you gaining new connections and collaborations to help further the mission of your platform?
• 41:03 What’s next for you, personally (as Miss Kentucky, as an advocate, as a leader)?
• 41:42 What’s next for The Lucky Ones? Are there new programs to launch, etc?
• 42:17 What advice do you have for young people currently in the foster or kinship-care system who may feel uncertain about their future?
• 45:09 For foster or relative caregivers?
• 47:32 If you could speak directly to the decision-makers (legislators, social services, educators) about one thing to make a meaningful difference for foster/kinship care kids, what would that be?

Transcript

Please pardon any errors, this is an automated transcript.

almost all of my college savings. It was like $1 ,000 that I put up, not much. But
I knew that that $1 ,000 wasn't going to be enough to pay for everything that I
needed in college, so I needed to make more. And so I really took a bet on
myself, and I entered this pageant, and I lost. And I remember going backstage and
just crying, and a director came up to me, and she was like, why are you crying?
You can just compete in another pageant. And I just said, you know, I can't.
school because when I moved to schools, I had moved to one school where they had
already done it. And then the school that I had been at hadn't done it yet, but
by the time I moved back, they had. And so I kind of just like missed out on
Long Division. Yeah.
Yeah. And so I had to relearn it when I was in high school, which is so funny to
say. But I moved a lot. I can't remember my first time being moved away,
but I remember living with my grandma and grandpa when
worry about anything. It was just my my grandpa was going to work and he worked in
the coal mines and my grandma had to stay home to take care of us. She's also she
has a disability so she couldn't go to work if she wanted to. But my grandpa, I
mean, he worked until he couldn't anymore. And when he passed, that's when I
couldn't live with my grandma anymore because she couldn't get a job to support all
three of us with her having the disability. Okay. So there was a lot
say, you know, I may have not been able to stay in those situations, but I can
look back and see how much I've learned from them and how much I've been able to
grow over the years because I went through that. And through all of these
transitions and moves and back and forth, were you able to stay in contact at all
with your mother or with your siblings? Yeah, so I stayed with my brother and
sister while we were in kinship care. I eventually went to foster care and moved
away from my little sister.
when I would move into a new home, I would turn into whatever I thought that that
family wanted me to be. And so I lost, I really lost pieces of myself doing that
because nobody was asking me what I wanted. It was always just, what does this
family want? And so growing up and having that idea, I feel like I turned into a
people pleaser, like always, always looking to see what people wanted from me. And I
never really turned internally and said, you know, what do I want out of this.
the voices of those who have experienced it themselves. And then we have the
suitcase project. So most children in foster care are given a trash bag. We collect
suitcases and fill them with not only essential items, but also just some nice items
that the kids would want. We always get the teenage girls face masks and one of
those little rice bags to put over your stomach. And we just get them sweet little
gifts like that too. And we're able to give it to them in a brand new.
out of the hard situation that they're in. That's not necessarily a typical response
to these kinds of really hard, challenging situations. And so I hope you can hear
me say that you are deserving of the title, resilient and strong and leader among
your peers. That's, it's remarkable to me. Thank you. I really appreciate that.
So now that you're Miss Kentucky and you're doing the daily tasks,
really saw that need and focus specifically this year and last year on targeting
those teenagers and really making them feel special and normal because being a
teenager is hard already. But when you add posture here on top of that, it's
difficult. And so that was the need there. And then we have the luckiest benefit,
which is our, my favorite event that we put on. It is a charity gala and we have
performances. This year we're happening an open day. Oh my gosh,
She was with her mom, and she just came up to me. And her mom was like, oh, my
gosh, that's Miss Kentucky. Like, I read your story. This was in a small town close
to where I'm from. So it was everywhere the week that I won that somebody from
Barstown had won, had won Miss Kentucky. And so I was talking to this woman,
kind of rushing, because I was on my way to be on the news. But I was kind of
rushing. And then we started talking. She was like, my daughter's in foster care.
and I
and outside perspective and just see where the gaps lie and we're able to fill in
those gaps and address them. And so it's really cool to be able to connect with so
many different people, even if I don't agree with them all the time, just to be
able to know that different perspectives exist and try to understand them. My first
year of social work at the University of Kentucky, I had a professor who told the
class this was my first social work class and she said, nobody thinks that a child
should start
out what we're cooking for breakfast this morning, or if they're having a really
hard day and they really miss their family, maybe instead of going to school, you
get to go and you just go out to eat and you let them take a day to relax. You
don't have to be perfect all the time to be a good parent. You just have to be
there, be present, and make them feel seen and valued and heard. And that goes so
much further than you would ever think. I mean, I've talked about all the The
program.
so work together on it. And before we wrap up, I want to go back to something
that you said earlier in the conversation that you had the opportunity to talk to
policymakers and decision makers about things that you suggest as ways to make
meaningful change in the foster and kinship system. So would you mind listing just
one or two things that you would, if you had another opportunity, to speak to those
decision makers, whether they're, whether they're,