Miss North Carolina’s Teen Kate Ward shows off a copy of her children’s book, Just One Little Fox. Ward wrote the book as part of her community service initiative, ‘The Tree Hugger Project.’ Ward was crowned Miss North Carolina’s Teen on June 28 in High Point. She will travel to Orlando, Florida, September 2-7 to compete in the Miss America’s Teen pageant. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
KENANSVILLE — When 18-year-old Kate Ward won the title of Miss North Carolina’s Teen 2025 on June 28 in High Point, it was the culmination of a years-long process that began in 2013 when she participated in the Carolina Princess (now Carolina Star) program, in which young girls are mentored by local Miss North Carolina and Miss North Carolina’s Teen titleholders. That “behind-the-scenes” look was all it took to hook her on the idea of one day entering the competition herself.
Ward, the daughter of Jon and Dana Ward and a recent graduate of North Duplin High School, is a lifelong Kenansville resident, yet she represented Johnston County in the Miss North Carolina’s Teen competition, as Duplin County doesn’t sponsor a pageant. Ward has strong ties to Johnston County—her sister, brother-in-law, and three nieces live in Clayton; her boyfriend lives in Four Oaks; and she takes dance lessons at Carolina Dance Productions in Clayton—so representing that county was a natural fit.
In addition to being crowned Miss North Carolina’s Teen, Ward took home several other prizes during the competition. She tied with two other contestants for the Preliminary Talent Award (she performed a lyrical dance to “I Want to Dance With Somebody”), won the Preliminary Evening Gown Award, and won the Hanley House Trailblazer Award for her community service project.
Ward speaks passionately about her community service initiative, “The Tree Hugger Project,” which she founded long before the pageant, having launched it during her freshman year in high school. “The main initiative of ‘The Tree Hugger Project’ is to educate and encourage our youth to join me in preserving our environment,” Ward explains. “I grew up in a very agricultural town, an agricultural family — my dad ran a cotton gin forever — so I kind of wanted to instill the same values that were instilled in me at a young age in our youth today.
“We don’t see teens very involved in our environment these days,” she continues. “I don’t think it’s a topic of conversation that’s very big.”
In applying for the Hanley House Trailblazer Award, she notes, “I talked about being able to trailblaze new paths and prove that you don’t have to be some big environmentalist to make a difference in our environment.”
As part of “The Tree Hugger Project,” Ward wrote a children’s book titled Just One Little Fox. Geared to second- and third-grade students, the book tells the tale of Finn, a fox who takes action to help save his forest home, which is in trouble due to humans littering and cutting down trees. She has placed the book in one school in all fifty states and is now considering making the book the first of a series. Also, as part of this project, she has planted trees in over 25 states.
Continuing to grow her community service initiative is one expectation that comes with being the state titleholder. Another expectation is to help promote the Miss North Carolina Organization and, more broadly, the Miss America Organization. “A lot of people, when they look at pageants, just assume you have a pretty dress and you do your hair and make-up and all those good things,” Ward says. But her responsibilities include helping to educate the public “that this is so much more than a crown and sash.”
She points out that the interview portion of the competition is what counts most when contestants are being judged. Once she was named Miss Johnston County’s Teen, the county organization set up numerous mock interviews to help prepare her for her next competition. “I videoed myself every time I went in there,” she recalls. In reviewing those videos, “I could look at myself from the very first mock interview I had to the one I had right before going to Miss North Carolina’s Teen, and I felt like a whole new person, and I think that just comes from comfortability, doing it so many times, and speaking to so many new people.”
Despite the many hours she spent preparing for the pageant — doing mock interviews, promoting her community service initiative, and practicing her dance routine — she admits that during the competition, “I was very nervous. I prayed just about the entire time. I’ve very, very big on prayer. The entire week…I just prayed that He would be beside me, within me, and behind me. And I just continued to pray that prayer. But no matter how much praying I did, I was still a little nervous.”
As the winner of the state title, Ward was offered her choice of a full-ride scholarship to either Mississippi State University or the University of Alabama; she chose UA, which was one of her top college choices regardless of whether she had gotten a scholarship to attend there. For her freshman year, however, she’ll attend East Carolina University (also on scholarship), making it easier to fulfill the obligations that come with being Miss North Carolina’s Teen. She plans to earn a degree in nursing — eventually hoping to pursue a doctorate — and become a family nurse practitioner.
While preparing to go to ECU this fall is a focus for Ward, there’s something else that’s currently at the forefront of her mind: accompanied by many family members and friends, she will go to Orlando, Fla., Sept. 2-7, to compete in the Miss America’s Teen 2026 competition at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
As she looks ahead to the pageant, she makes it clear that she wants a win not just for herself, but for her home state. “Miss North Carolina’s Teen only ever had one representative that took home the national title,” she says, “so it would be absolutely incredible to be that second one and to bring home the title to North Carolina, because I believe this state is very deserving.”
