Kaeppeler beat out 53 other contestants for the crown, a $50,000 scholarship and a year-long run as Miss America.Kaeppeler is a 23-year-old who attended Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

For her talent competition, she performed an operatic solo of the Italian song Il Bacio. Her platform was supporting and mentoring children of incarcerated parents–her own father had served 18 months in federal prison for mail fraud.

The judges, which included Dancing with the Stars pro Mark Ballas, Kris Jenner, and Lara Spencer., posed for pictures after the pageant.