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Miss America hopeful swaps combat boots for evening gown, says military service gives her purpose
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Alexia Rodrigues is trading in her combat boots for a chance at a crown.
On Sunday, the pageant star is competing in the Miss America competition as Miss Rhode Island in Orlando. She previously enlisted in the Rhode Island Army National Guard during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has completed over three years of full-time active duty.
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Alexia Rodrigues is competing in Miss America as Miss Rhode Island. (Miss America IP INC.)
The 25-year-old told Fox News Digital she’s eager to raise awareness about women in the armed forces. Serving has given her purpose over the years, she said.
“I absolutely love my job,” the Warwick native shared. “I get excited every day to be able to put on my uniform, to serve my country, my community. … That’s what fuels me every day. What the Army does, which not a lot of companies do, is ensure that our soldiers are trained from day one on EO, which is “equal opportunity” and SHARP, which is the “Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program.”
Alexia Rodrigues wants all foster kids to get a head start in life. (Miss America IP INC.)
“We have an extremely supportive team that goes through each step and ensures that every unit is taken care of and is following these policies,” she shared. “I’m here to show young girls that even if there is no space for you where you want to be, create that space yourself. There is no limit. Be the first, and leave that door open for the next woman to come after you.”
Alexia Rodrigues is from Warwick, Rhode Island. (Miss America IP INC.)
Miss America, a glitzy competition, was born from a 1921 Atlantic City beauty contest just a year after women were given the right to vote, The Associated Press reported. Many participants say the organization — a large provider of scholarship assistance to young women — has been life-altering, opening doors for them both personally and professionally.
Alexia Rodrigues enlisted during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Miss America IP INC.)
The organization, one of the nation’s most recognized brands, awards more than $5 million in cash scholarships annually, plus millions more at the national, state and local levels.
“I think there were many things that Miss America offers that I knew aligned with my beliefs and I immediately wanted to be a part of,” said Rodrigues. “I’ve been competing in this organization since I was 16 years old, so I’m coming up at nine years now. It took a lot of tries and a lot of resiliency to make it to this point.”
WATCH: MISS RHODE ISLAND CHAMPIONS FOSTER CARE REFORM AT MISS AMERICA COMPETITION
One of the causes Rodrigues aims to highlight is supporting foster youth. It hits close to home.
Rodrigues entered foster care after witnessing her biological mother battling addiction and suffering neglect. She wasn’t adopted until age seven.
Alexia Rodrigues was seven years old when she was adopted. (Miss America IP INC.)
“My foster parents, who are the only parents I’ve ever known – I hate calling them that because, to me, they’ve always just been mom and dad,” she explained. “They started the process when I was fairly young, around three or four years old. It was a long journey. I believe that’s where I got my resiliency. From both of them.”
Rodrigues created the community service initiative, “Foster Hope, Adopt a Dream,” which aims to educate the public on “the realities of foster care.”
Alexia Rodrigues is a graduate of St. Mary’s Academy Bay View and attended Syracuse University for two years before enlisting in the Rhode Island Army National Guard in 2021. (Miss America IP INC.)
“What we [forget to realize] is that there are half a million children in our foster care system, and over 22,000 of them will age out every year, never knowing a loving family or a support system, not having access to higher education,” she said.
“She has served as a Recruiting and Retention Noncommissioned Officer, deployed to Guantánamo Bay, and earned NATO certifications as a Gender Advisor, Gender Focal Point, and Small Armed Conflict Resolution Specialist,” the Miss America Organization told Fox News Digital. (Miss America IP INC.)
“This will lead to one-fourth of them ending up either incarcerated, homeless, or jobless. My goal is to educate people on these statistics. While they might be very sobering, they paint a very real picture of the realities of foster care.”
“We don’t have too many policies that cover foster care and what these children are entitled to,” she pointed out.
Alexia Rodrigues (right) wants to highlight women in the armed forces. (Miss America IP INC.)
“I just met with Senator Reed, going over bills I would love to propose. [They would] make Rhode Island the pilot state for the Foster Youth Bill of Rights and the Foster Hope Act. Both will focus on services for children aging out of the foster care system. They’ll ensure that children in foster care know their rights … and they know who to go to if their rights are being violated.”
Alexia Rodrigues entered foster care after witnessing her biological mother battling addiction. (Courtesy of Miss America IP INC.)
Rodrigues said serving in the Rhode Island National Guard gave her the confidence to share her story and the strength to help others in similar circumstances.
“I was in Syracuse,” she recalled. “I was in my second year studying political science. When COVID hit, my life, just like everyone else’s, turned upside down. My normal became abnormal. I was sitting at home writing these essays about the change that I wanted to see, the change I wanted to create and be a part of at a time when I felt very disconnected from my community, which is a core part of who I am.”
Rodrigues’ community initiative, “Foster Hope: Adopt a Dream,” is dedicated to ensuring foster youth nationwide have access to services and higher education. (Miss America IP INC.)
“I reached out to a former Miss Rhode Island – Miss Rhode Island 2015, Allie Curtis, who was a captain in the Rhode Island National Guard,” said Rodrigues. “I asked her, ‘Do you feel like you’re making an impact? Why do you continue to serve?’ She told me her reasons, and she invited me to spend a weekend with them … I immediately fell in love with the group of people, their passion for serving and the ability to be part of something bigger than myself.”
While deployed, Alexia Rodrigues created mentorship programs for youth, helped found “Women in Leadership” and partnered with nonprofits to rehome 24 cats. (Miss America IP INC.)
Tragedy has also fueled her sense of purpose. At 13, Rodrigues lost her sister, Tiffany, to an undiagnosed heart disease. Then, in 2024, her brother, Keith, died by suicide.
“I think grief leaves a type of pain with you that never fully goes away,” said Rodrigues. “I created my resiliency tour where I went into communities, into units within the military, into classrooms, and I talked about resiliency, what the word means, what it looks like. I tell my story of loss, grief, going through foster care, being vulnerable, because not every moment on this journey did I think I was going to be OK.”
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Alexia Rodrigues is seen here speaking to students. (Miss America IP INC.)
Today, Rodrigues hopes that her journey will inspire others to make a difference in their communities.
Alexia Rodrigues is the author of the forthcoming children’s book “The Somewhere Kid,” with all royalties funding the Foster Hope Scholarship — a program she aims to launch in all 50 states. (Miss America IP INC.)
“There were far more moments than I would like to admit that I thought [what happened to me] was going to break me forever,” she admitted.
“I did struggle with mental health … I was fortunate I had a support system that recognized I wasn’t OK, even though I would smile and say I was. It’s because of them that I was able to not be OK in those moments, that I needed to just cry, break down, to feel like the world was caving in on me. After that, they helped me pick up the pieces and put myself back together.”
Alexia Rodrigues hopes her story will inspire others to serve. (Miss America IP INC.)
“Because of them, I’m here,” she said. “It’s because of them that I’m the woman I am today. That’s why it’s always been my goal as a leader… to bring the message forward, be the support system that I had that far too many young kids don’t.”
The Miss America competition is on Sunday, September 7. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.
In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.
As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.
The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.
Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.
Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”
After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.
Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.
In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.
First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.
Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.
Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.
Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.
If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.
Human remains were discovered Wednesday in the water in Shirley, Massachusetts, and authorities suspect foul play.
Police in Shirley said in a social media post at 7:15 p.m. that they responded to “a suspicious object in the water near the Maritime Veterans Memorial Bridge on Shaker Road.” Massachusetts State Police later said the object was believed to be human remains.
The bridge crosses Catacoonamug Brook near Phoenix Pond.
The office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said a group of young people was walking in the area around 5:30 p.m. and “reported seeing what appeared to be something consistent with a body part in the water.”
Foul play is suspected, Ryan’s office said.
Authorities will continue investigating overnight into Thursday, and an increased police presence is expected in the area.
No further information was immediately available.
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