Arkansas

Miss Arkansas wins Miss America’s Teen 2025; Miss Alabama is first runner-up

Published

1 year ago

January 4, 2025

Miss Arkansas wins Miss America’s Teen 2025; Miss Alabama is first runner-up

Peyton Bolling was crowned Miss America’s Teen 2025 on Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.

Bolling, who competed as Miss Arkansas’ Teen, is from Rogers and attends Bentonville High School. She performed a jazz dance in the pageant’s talent competition on Saturday. The teen pageant — which includes talent, evening gown and on-stage question segments — is part of the Miss America organization.

Along with the title of Miss America’s Teen, Bolling will receive $50,000 in scholarship money and a yearlong reign, according to the Miss America organization. During her year as Miss America’s Teen, Bolling will travel across the country and use her platform to raise awareness about her philanthropic effort, known as Simple Acts of Citizenship. She’ll also serve as a role model for young girls and a brand ambassador for the Miss America’s Teen program.

Ali Mims, Miss Alabama’s Teen, was named first-runner up for Miss America’s Teen on Saturday and earned $10,000 in scholarship money. Mims, from Harpersville, was featured throughout the finals event and performed a soprano aria during the talent competition, singing “O Mio Babbino Caro” (“Oh, my Dear Papa”) from Giacomo Puccini’s 1918 opera “Gianni Schicchi.”

Also, Mims was one of three winners in Tuesday’s evening gown preliminary for Miss America’s Teen, earning a $3,000 scholarship.

Mims is a student at Chelsea High School. Her philanthropic platform for Miss Alabama’s Teen is the Joyful Noise Foundation: Music Education for the Special Needs Community, It raises money to put musical instruments in special needs classes.

Ali Mims of Harpersville, Alabama, was named first runner-up for Miss America’s Teen on Jan. 4, 2025, in Orlando Florida. Mims competed as Miss Alabama’s Teen in the national pageant.(Courtesy of Miss America IP LLC)

A total of 51 teens were in the running for 2025, competing in preliminary events this week and the finals on Saturday at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando. All had previously been crowned at pageants in their home states or Puerto Rico.

Aside from Bolling and Mims, the top five finalists were:

Brooke Bumgarner, Miss Mississippi’s Teen 2024 (second-runner up)
Abigail Mignucci, Miss New Jersey’s Teen 2024 (third runner-up)
Macie Krause, Miss Texas’ Teen 2024 (fourth runner-up)

As runners-up, Bumgarner, Mignucci and Krause each earned $10,000 in scholarship money, according to the Miss America organization. The finals were livestreamed on the Miss America YouTube channel and PageantVision.com.

The top 11 contestants for Miss America’s Teen were:

Ali Mims, Miss Alabama’s Teen 2024
Keira Bixler, Miss California’s Teen 2024
Melissa Le, Miss Louisiana’s Teen 2024
Peyton Bolling, Miss Arkansas’ Teen 2024
Nicole McClain, Miss Hawaii’s Teen 2024
Kynlee Schultheis, Miss Oklahoma’s Teen 2024
Macie Krause, Miss Texas’ Teen 2024
Abigail Mignucci, Miss New Jersey’s Teen 2024
Carrington Manous, Miss Georgia’s Teen 2024
Avery Bradley, Miss Iowa’s Teen 2024
Brooke Bumgarner, Miss Mississippi’s Teen 2024

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Arkansas

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

Published

9 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) — Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has joined a new national artificial intelligence initiative that launched Thursday, June 25.

RAISE US, started by former Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Gina Raimondo, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce is a nonpartisan national organization that will partner with governors, employers, workers and training organizations to help the workforce transition to an AI economy.

“As artificial intelligence transforms America’s economy, we have one clear message: technology should empower people, not replace them. By leveraging our Arkansas LAUNCH initiative, and with the resources and expertise provided by RAISE US, Arkansas will turn that mission into reality. We want the Natural State to be a leader on education, workforce training, and up-skilling, and this new partnership gives us the tools we need to build a model for the entire nation.”

The organization will design and pilot incentives to retrain workers, new approaches to support job transitions, and training models tied to employer demand.

RAISE US launches with more than two dozen American companies and philanthropies and initial state partnerships in Connecticut, Maryland and Utah.

“America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy — and we cannot lead without one,” Raimondo, who will serve as CEO of RAISE US, said.

“If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything; we’ll have automated our own decline. I believe AI will create new jobs and industries over time, but the transition could be disruptive, and it’s already underway. We shouldn’t fearmonger, but we can’t pretend our training and worker support systems are ready either. It’s time for innovative and practical solutions. This moment demands ambition, urgency, and creativity. We’ve assembled the country’s top companies, best economists, and bipartisan governors at a scale rarely seen — all to advance new ideas and incentives, pilot them with governors and business, and scale what works.”

Governor Sanders is partnering with RAISE US to support Arkansas LAUNCH, an AI-powered career navigation platform that connects students and jobseekers to personalized learning and employer-linked career pathways.

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