Laura Kaeppeler,'10, right, won the preliminary talent competition on Night 1 of the Miss America national competition for her operatic vocal performance of "Il Bacio." She is pictured with Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan. Photo courtesy of the Miss America pageant.

Carthage alumna Laura Kaeppeler, '10, was named the winner of the 2012 Miss America Pageant's preliminary talent competition on Jan. 10. Miss Kaeppeler is representing Wisconsin in the national pageant, which will be televised on Jan. 14.

Watch the awards ceremony.
Watch a video interview with Miss Kaeppeler.

A Kenosha native, Miss Kaeppeler was crowned Miss Wisconsin in June. She graduated from Carthage with a degree in vocal performance. Her platform is Circles of Support, a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents.

Miss Kaeppeler receives a $2,000 scholarship for her operatic vocal performance of "Il Bacio" during the pageant's first preliminary competition. The talent portion is 35 percent of a contestant's preliminary score.

During her time at Carthage, Miss Kaeppeler was a member of the Carthage Choir, the Lincoln Chamber Singers, and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus; and a Music Department Honor's Recital Participant. She currently runs a private music studio teaching voice and piano. In the future, she plans to pursue a degree in family law.

Her platform as Miss Wisconsin comes from her personal experience as the child of an incarcerated parent. She founded Circles of Support, a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents. "Nationwide, more than 2 million children have a parent who is incarcerated in a state or federal prison, or local jail," she states in a description of her platform on the Miss Wisconsin website. "Children with imprisoned parents are almost six times more likely than their peers to become involved in crime and become incarcerated at some point in their lives."

Related:
Learn more about the Carthage Music Department
Recent Carthage graduate crowned Miss Wisconsin