When Kate Schartel Novak ’04 ’05G was a baby, her mother took her to the local mall and entered her in a beauty contest.
While she has no memory of that first competition, it’s clear, only now, how seminal that moment would become in her life.
She returned to pageants in middle school where she learned how to stand, walk, and speak with confidence, placing first runner-up in the Miss Pennsylvania American Teen competition and overall winner at an America’s Cover Miss pageant.
Life then took a detour as she focused on dance and cheer in high school and came to Lehigh as an English major, earning a Bachelor of Arts and then a Master in Education.
She entered the competition for Miss Greater Berks County while in graduate school.
“I wanted the scholarship money for grad school, but I didn’t place,” she says. “I did get a story out of the experience for a fiction writing class, though.”
She got married and taught middle and high school English for a decade, thinking her pageant days were behind her.
But as serendipity would have it, one night on television, she saw the Mrs. America pageant.
Most people are familiar with the world of unmarried women’s pageants. There are two main titles: Miss America and Miss USA. Both start at the state level and move onto national competitions. The third main title, Miss Universe, is the international-level competition to which Miss USA progresses.
Novak never realized there were separate pageant systems for married women. Mrs. United States, Mrs. America, and Mrs. International are among the most well-known.
In 2009, she entered the Mrs. America system and earned second runner-up at Mrs. Pennsylvania. In 2010, she was first runner-up at Mrs. Pennsylvania America. For the 2011 competition, when she expected to shine, she didn’t even place, so she shifted gears, signing up for Mrs. Pennsylvania United States.
“Life is serendipitous,” she says. “Your time in the limelight is yours for a reason.”
She won Mrs. Pennsylvania United States in 2011. At the national battle in Las Vegas for the Mrs. United States crown, Novak saw just how much she could be doing.
“There were state title holders there who were doing amazing things with their lives,” she says. “They were founding their own nonprofits and writing books, and they were in far better shape, despite being decades older than me.”
Though she failed to win the Mrs. United States title that year, she learned a lot.
“I had over 100 appearances that year, rarely getting a break,” she says. She did make more personal investments, partnering with local nonprofits to run golf tournaments and fashion shows, as well as earning the first of many fitness and yoga certifications.
The commitment was demanding and showed some cracks in the foundations of her life. First in her marriage: All the time together for competitions and public appearances made clear different priorities when it came to family and the future. Then at school: She was missing the ability to teach valuable literature due to the bureaucracy of the school system.
Novak first left her marriage.
“I felt like such a hypocrite,” she says. “At pageants, I would extoll the institution of marriage and the importance of education in children’s lives. And here my marriage was ending, and my passion for teaching waned.”
She took a break from competitions and found new love, getting remarried. Then, she left her job.
She began working with animals and hopped back into competitions. That year, she won the title that first eluded her in the America system: Mrs. Pennsylvania America 2015.
“We are a bonded group of amazing women,” she says. “We are doctors, teachers, and military members, women who care about causes and represent different backgrounds and values.”
As serendipity would have it, the national battle was being held at the same location as her competition for the Mrs. United States crown.
“Any jitters I may have had were gone as I was familiar with the place and many of the people,” she says.
The field of women in these competitions isn’t as large as in unmarried pageants. So friends and rivals often gather together many times over the course of a year.
“We are a bonded group of amazing women,” she says. “We are doctors, teachers, and military members, women who care about causes and represent different backgrounds and values.”
The work they do isn’t easy or cheap either: Fitness. Evening gown. And interview, both onstage and privately with judges.
“Imagine having to take an unpopular viewpoint and present it in an appealing way in front of a number of judges,” she says. “It’s not unlike politics, but it’s a lot more fun, because while it sounds so surfacey to say, it is fun to play dress up, and it is fun to inspire others to be healthy and to help elevate every voice.”
The birth of her daughter in 2016 again put pageant life on pause.
Serendipity stepped in again and connected her with VIPKid, a global leader in online English instruction. She returned to the classroom, albeit a virtual one, tutoring children in China for about five years.
In 2018, she decided to complete the “triple crown” and pursue the Mrs. Pennsylvania International title.
Novak competed in 2019 and won, taking up the mantle for PBS as her signature cause, juxtaposing her return to pageantry with her return to education.
When COVID-19 hit, the virtual instruction model grew exponentially, and Novak again left the classroom and became a professional development specialist for a domestic company, Proximity Learning, Inc., where she helps train teachers how to best facilitate online instruction.
Yes, she has gone on to compete and win in other regional competitions. Yes, she and her daughter have competed and won mother/daughter crowns. Yes, she still loves it.
“Some women go to Atlantic City or Key West for a weekend with their girlfriends. Some get together at night for a glass of wine while watching shows like the Kardashians,” she says. “I’m in that same club. We just get together and battle for best hair and talent.”