Q&A with Katie Stam
The Reflector’s feature editor, Staci Reafsnyder scored an exclusive interview with UIndy’s own Miss America 2009. Katie Stam reflects on her reigning year and all of the things that she has experienced and learned. Stam also reveals what she’ll be doing now that she has passed on the crown.
Katie Stam presents Miss Oregon CC Barber with the Preliminary Lifestyle & Fitness award at the 2010 Miss America Contest
SR: If there were one memory that you could pick from this past year, what would it be?
KS: This one is hard. I always pick out my top three, and I would say definitely in the top three would be meeting President Obama, my trip overseas to visit our troops and my work with Children’s Miracle Network. You can’t really put one above the other.
SR: After you were crowned, what was it like doing all of those interviews with Regis and Kelly, Kathy Lee and Hoda, etc.?
KS: I went literally from a college student with few internships under my belt in the Indianapolis market, wanting to broadcast since I was in eighth grade, to being on “Live With Regis and Kelly,” the “Today Show,” “Fox and Friends in the Morning,” “MSNBC;” all of these amazing news shows and channels in less than a week; I went from a college student to Miss America literally in an instant. I was beside myself. I always go back to that very first week when I did my media tour in New York City and I got to meet Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin, and all of these amazing broadcasters that I have looked up to ever since I decided I wanted to be a broadcaster. It just really was an amazing experience to, in an instant, have that.
I don’t know that I’ve evolved into the title of Miss America because I never changed anything about myself.
SR: You were crowned Miss America 2009. How do you feel you’ve evolved into that role?
KS: I don’t know that I’ve evolved into the title of Miss America because I never changed anything about myself. That’s the best way that I can describe it; the crown does not make me, I make the crown. There is no mold to who Miss America is because they choose a girl every year based on who she is and how she would represent the title and the organization. I don’t know that I evolved into Miss America because I think they chose me because they thought I would be the best representation of it as Katie Stam.
SR: What has it been like being the spokesperson for the Children’s Miracle Network?
KS: It’s really hard to describe because I wish everyone understood the kind of work that is happening in children’s hospitals every single day. Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) is a network of 170 children’s hospitals in North America. I’ve visited about 30 to 35 of those, met with thousands of kids, thousands of family members of the kids, thousands of doctors, nurses. I’ve just met thousands and thousands of people within CMN, and it’s hard to say the kind of impact it has on your life. I wish everyone had the opportunity to see the inner workings of a children’s hospital so that they would feel more grateful whenever they have a healthy baby. It’s opened up my eyes. It’s very rewarding work, right up there with the military work that I do, and it’s work that I’m definitely looking forward to continuing.
SR: What do you plan on doing now that Miss America 2010 has been crowned?
KS: I’m looking forward to coming back home to Indiana, setting up shop there and hopefully getting a career in broadcast. I wrote a children’s book this year while I was on the road. I’m looking forward to getting that published. It’s called “I want to be Miss America,” and I’m looking forward to putting that on shelves and doing a lot of work with that. Probably book tours, signings and readings and a media tour as well. I’m looking forward to continue working with a lot of the organizations that I’ve started good relationships with this year. It’s really incredible to say that you’ve started a relationship with a lot of these organizations and that your relationship goes beyond your year as Miss America. It will take some getting used to, not being Miss America, because it’s so much a part of your life and it leaves as quickly as it comes. The moment they put the crown on your head, your journey begins, and the moment you put the crown on someone else’s head, your journey ends. I’m still looking forward to coming home and starting a new chapter in my life and seeing what else God has in store for me.
SR: When you say, ‘coming home,’ are you also coming back to UIndy?
KS: Someday…Someday. I will complete my degree at UIndy. When, I don’t know. Everyone keeps asking me “Is school right around the corner for you?” I only have one semester left, and it’s mostly electives. To be quite frank, I would be a fool to give up these opportunities. School will always be there. I’m not going to let things slip through my fingers. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will complete my degree, and it will be from UIndy. It’s just a matter of when.
