A military brat, Elaina McCoulskey said she was used to moving around with family while growing up. But McCoulskey said community service is in her blood, and being part of Fiesta San Antonio royalty allows her to spread the word about issues near and dear to her.

“It is the most terrifying and most exciting time,” said McCoulskey, who, as 2022 Miss San Antonio, is one of nine official Fiesta royalty members.

Each Fiesta royalty member is backed by his/her respective participating member organization to help support charitable activities, according to the Fiesta San Antonio Commission.

This spring marks the first full-fledged Fiesta since 2019, before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Resilience” is the theme for Fiesta 2022, which runs March 31-April 10.

“They couldn’t have picked a better theme,” McCoulskey said.

But resilience is one of the traits advocated by McCoulskey, a 2019 “Lady Bird” Johnson High School graduate, as she uses participation in pageants to promote charitable and social causes.

McCoulskey said she began competing in pageants in sixth grade because she learned it could be an ideal platform from which she could achieve academic goals and serve her community.

McCoulskey has taken part in the Miss America pageant system since 2017, winning two Outstanding Teen titles, including Miss South Texas’ Outstanding Teen in 2017 and Miss Bexar County’s Outstanding Teen in 2018.

While holding pageant titles and attending classes at Johnson, McCoulskey created an initiative designed to help military children struggling to acclimate to changing schools and finding new friends.

McCoulskey said she would publicize her initiative while attending various family-friendly charitable and community events in her official pageant capacity.

“I grew up as a military child. I wanted to create a safe space for other military children,” she said.

But McCoulskey started tackling another social concern after three of her friends, separately, had died by suicide, and a fourth classmate accidentally died.

McCoulskey said children, teenagers and young adults are largely unprepared to cope with the mental and emotional rigors of growing up, including depression, anxiety and thoughts of self-harm.

“I was in a lot of turmoil, and I realized we aren’t preparing young people for the mental crises that they’ll face in life,” McCoulskey said.

McCoulskey has since created another initiative, Talk Through the Taboo, aimed at defying social stigmas by encouraging youth to talk openly about mental and emotional health challenges and to seek out help.

McCoulskey said she feels it is easier for children and teenagers to hear from young adults about mental and emotional obstacles because those young adults are familiar with such difficult, personal topics.

“Teenagers are at least willing to listen,” she said.

While making special appearances at schools, McCoulskey said she tries to teach students to recognize the possible signs of mental illness and learn to handle them in a healthy way. She also urges families to have their own action plan with resources to help their child through their mental health emergencies.

“It’s important for everyone to have an emergency plan in case something goes wrong,” she said. “An emergency plan is supposed to work for you. It gives you an easy template on what to do, where to go.”

According to McCoulskey, the pandemic and the social issues she has addressed on the pageant circuit have both helped to change her trajectory in college. She was attending Schreiner University in Kerrville until the pandemic’s arrival. As a sophomore, McCoulskey left campus classes and transitioned toward earning a degree online.

McCoulskey recently was studying criminal psychology at Liberty University online and is nearing graduation. She said she plans to pursue a doctorate in psychometrics, a part of psychology focused on the theory and technique of measurement.

McCoulskey also works as a greeter at a local emergency room where she offers support to patients suffering from mental or emotional concerns.

McCoulskey said the hospital work gives her perspective and reinforces her belief in the importance of assisting people in need, especially those struggling mentally or emotionally.

“It has changed my life,” she said of her job.

McCoulskey said she hopes to apply her academic skills and the issues she has promoted within the pageant circuit toward a career working in the criminal justice system and assessing a defendant’s mental and emotional states.

McCoulskey also said she plans to compete for Miss Texas in June and, if all goes well, for Miss America.

In the meantime, McCoulskey said she will continue to use her public platform to raise awareness of various social challenges facing children and teenagers.

She also said she looks forward to being able to enjoy visiting many functions as Miss San Antonio this Fiesta season.

“The resilience theme is a reminder that we’re still here. Even though life has changed for everyone, there are still things we can look forward to doing together,” she said.