By Sydney Goitia-Doran, The Seattle Medium
Kennedy Catholic High School student Moniah Gabriel had not attended a pageant before, let alone participated in one. But after her mother signed her up for the Miss HBCU Teen 2025 pageant and her community voiced their support, she stepped onto the stage and shined —ultimately being crowned Miss HBCU Teen 2025.
The Miss HBCU Teen Pageant is a national competition for high school girls committed to attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), empowering them through mentorship, leadership development and scholarship opportunities.
Contestants compete in three age divisions – Little Miss HBCU, Junior Teen, and Teen – and earn state titles before going on to compete in the national competition. Despite being the only person in her age group, Gabriel still needed to impress the judges in order to win the crown. Putting her best foot forward, she worked hard the night before the competition practicing her introduction, one stage question responses, and her talent – tap dancing.
“I had to make it be known I was competing with myself, not other people,” Gabriel said. “Because, when you look at the pictures and stuff like that, you would think I’m competing with a bunch of people. But really it was by myself.”
“That part for me, was like, ‘Okay, girl, you got to put in the work.’ But when it came to actually being on the stage and doing the stuff, by the time I got there, my nerves and everything about it had calmed down, and I felt like I had it in the bag,” she added.
Gabriel said the highpoint for her was being crowned by Miss HBCU Teen 2024, Kisa Dupe, who is also from Seattle. She also appreciated having the opportunity to meet the pageant network leading up to the event.
In addition, the process allowed Gabriel to discover new things about herself and grow as a person.
“I would say my overall favorite part about it was being able to reflect, these last couple days, and realize you were able to believe in yourself and accomplish something and not doubt yourself,” Gabriel said. “I felt like in the process of this week, of that weekend, I was embedded in myself. I felt like I knew what I was doing and I had control of it.”
Before the pageant, Gabriel spoke with her cousin, KyRi Miller, a 2025 graduate from Dillard University in New Orleans, who has some pageant experience of his own, as he was a member of his school’s royal court and was elected the 2024 – 2025 Mister Senior at Dillard.
“It has always been kind of crazy to see her grow up, because for a long time I was growing up with her, and then once I left for college, I still got to see her progress and see all the amazing things that she was doing,” said Miller. “And when I saw her running for her position, that warmed my heart.”
Miller said he is proud of Gabriel and excited to be a part of her journey.
“She’s pro giving back towards the people that would give back to us,” Miller said. “And that is something that I will forever thank her for because I went to an HBCU that not a lot of people know about, but a lot of people can definitely say that they know that I attended HBCU and that I flourished from it.”
After attending PWIs like Kennedy Catholic most of her life, Gabriel will be studying psychology and art at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall. She hopes to use her platform to empower other Black students at PWIs to find their voice like she did in high school.
“In every aspect of the school, I always made sure that I was the one who was the loudest so everybody understood it isn’t matter who you are,” Gabriel said. “You can be heard, you can be energetic, you can be loud without being titled as everything they have for us to be titled as.”
Both Gabriel and Miller spoke about the importance of pageantry for the Black community. It’s more than just performing on stage, but representative of the support within the community.
“The support that I was able to see from people, and how much they cheered for their fellow classmates, it’s heartwarming, like an overabundance of joy to just see how well we’re able to love each other and support each other in all the things that we do,” Miller said.
