Bellarmine University’s Ariel Thompson has a unique hobby: she captures crowns. 

Thompson, who is enrolled in the  Rubel School’s Executive MBA program, was crowned Miss Black Kentucky USA  in October, winning the Miss Division and earning a $5,000 scholarship. She’ll go on to compete for the national Miss Black USA title in Washington, D.C., the first week of August. 

It wasn’t her first foray into pageantry. She was the runner-up in the Miss Black and Gold competition at Kentucky State University, a top-15 finisher in Miss Kentucky pageants in 2021 and 2022 and second runner-up at Miss Kentucky Earth, which seeks to build environmental awareness. 

But Miss Black Kentucky was her favorite pageant so far because it offered a place to "actually bond with other contestants,” and “it brought the challenges Black women face in pageantry to the forefront of conversations,” she told The Courier-Journal. 

Thompson was able put her pageantry experiences to good use at Bellarmine earlier this month. She served as one of the judges for the Office of Identity and Inclusion’s inaugural Multicultural Scholarship Pageant.  

"I try my best to encourage people, even when it’s hard, to see that achievement is possible. I help them see that path forward.."

She offered the three participants advice and mentorship and was proud to watch their skills blossom over the practice period. Pageantry helps contestants build incredible life skills, she said, like public speaking and presentation preparation. 

Mentorship is a foundational value for Thompson. She works as a residence and student life coordinator at Simmons College, Louisville's only historically Black college, where she interfaces with young people daily. Since 2019, she’s also operated a mentoring program, Blossoming Beauties, for young black women in the community.  

“Where you don't really see a lot of representation for yourself, it can be hard to fit in or even just do the minimum sometimes because you just don't really understand what's going on and maybe you don’t have a family to lean on who understand what you're going through. So, I try my best to encourage people, even when it’s hard, to see that achievement is possible. I help them see that path forward,” Thompson said. 

Thompson said her own life experiences help her relate to students who come from challenging backgrounds. She was raised by her grandparents in Louisville’s West End and was the first in her family to attend college.  

She went on to graduate from Kentucky State, a historically Black university in Frankfort, where she earned a Bachelor's in Mass Communication with a minor in Speech Communications. 

She’s currently working on a children’s book series that will help families discuss difficult topics like grandparents raising their grandchildren. 

Thompson chose  Rubel School’s Executive MBA program because classes are largely on the weekend, giving her the flexibility to earn her degree, while keeping her day job and her many community service projects. The MBA will help her land the kinds of director and executive level jobs she’s hopeful to earn one day, she said. 

Where you don't really see a lot of representation for yourself, it can be hard to fit in or even just do the minimum sometimes because you just don't really understand what's going on

She’ll always try to be a welcoming bridge in the work world for people from marginalized backgrounds, she said. 

“Growing up, I didn't really see a lot of people who look like me in the roles that I'm currently in or I just didn't see a lot of representation, period, for the things that I wanted to be,” Thompson said.   

Thompson’s grandmother is from Selma, Ala., and she visited there for holidays and other occasions. Walking the streets that were the nexus of the voting rights campaign of the 1960s gave her a profound appreciation for Black history and her own identity. Black History Month gives her a chance to hold those thoughts, feelings and memories close. For her, it’s a time of reflection about how the past informs our present.    

“Black History Month has always meant a lot to me,” she said. “I know we're in this space right now, debating and fighting for our rights and our history to even still be in schools. Never would I have ever thought that there would be a fight to learn things that are a part of our history. This month really is important. It empowers you.”