Local student to compete in Miss United States Pageant

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - Aaliyah Kissick wears a lot of hats. She's a student of the University of Illinois, a small business owner, an Army National Guard service member, and is currently working to create a Chamber of Commerce in her hometown of Athens. She is also Miss Illinois United States 2023.

"I started with county fair pageants when I was very young and then when I was 10, or 11, I started doing different statewide pageants," said Kissick. "I expanded to the United States system when I was around 16."

Right now, Kissick is studying Agricultural and Consumer Economics. She plans to be a Financial Advisor when she graduates, and financial literacy is her platform in the Miss United States pageant.

"We learn how to vote, we learn about our Constitution, but we never learn about things like taxes," said Kissick. "In terms of the economy, we have governments, we have businesses, but households are always always a really important part of the economy and so in order to properly teach students how to be members of the economy, we need to have a mandatory financial literacy class."

She is advocating for House Bill 1375, which requires financial literacy classes for high school students. Her passion for this topic comes from the information she learned running her small business, AK Boutique, as well as the knowledge she gained in college. In addition to helping students feel empowered about their finances, literacy has a widespread benefit for communities.

"I'm really excited to see the development in the Springfield area and in Menard County where I'm from because a lot of excellent small business owners in this area are working to create some really good opportunities," said Kissick. "Supporting local business is a really important part of financial literacy because so much wealth stays in the community when you support locally."

Kissick will head to Memphis, Tennessee in October to compete for Miss United States.