Maggie Wadginski Has Studied, Struggled, and Danced Toward a Message of Hope For Those in Crisis.

Goals. Relationships. Intentions. Time Out. That’s how recent Westside graduate and current Miss Lincoln Outstanding Teen Maggie Wadginski defines GRIT. It’s a mantra she both practices and promotes in life, in speech, and most recently, in ink.

Seventeen-year-old Wadginski has loved to dance since toddlerhood; a passion threatened early by a tumor in her hip and an operation to remove it at age 3. The surgery was a success, and the youngster learned to walk, and in time, dance once more. However, she couldn’t have guessed that dancing would be the skill that would one day earn her scholarships to achieve a new dream a degree in forensic accounting.

“For a long time, I was on track to become a professional dancer,” Wadginski said, “But once I decided not to pursue dance professionally, I had to come up with a new plan for college.”

Wadginski’s time with the FBI’s Teen Academy over the past two summers proved insightful; she wanted to join the FBI’s forensic accou nting team.

“They only select 20 teens to join this day program each year. We went to the headquarters here in Omaha, and we got to take part in a mock hostage negotiation. We learned about the process of fingerprinting, molding footprints, and we got to see the cyber work they do,” Wadginski recalled. “I asked what kind of a degree to pursue if I wanted a future with the FBI, and they said that they needed people from every field. It was amazing to see just how many perspectives they use to do their work. It is by default an incredibly inclusive environment, and I wanted to be part of it.”

Now that she’d uncovered the ‘what,’ Wadginski needed to suss out the 'how.'

“My mom and I used to watch the Miss USA and Miss America pageants together when I was a little girl,” Wadginski said. “While we had always watched together, it wasn’t until I thought about college that it occurred to me to compete.”

“Some of the pageant wisdom has stayed the same,” recalled Wadginski’s mother, Wyn Sipple. Sipple not only provides her daughter encouragement and support; she also shares her pageant stage experience as Miss Michigan Teen USA 1992, and Miss Nebraska USA in 1999.

“You want to look your best, and of course Maggie is as beautiful inside as she is outside. I can say that, even though I am her mother. I’m biased, but it’s also just true. It’s also still important to be a little conservative,” Sipple explained. “You want to present yourself in a way that isn’t distracting. And it’s so important for your talent to be technically excellent and still entertaining. All of that was a constant, but the rest of this? The role of social media in the pageant system and scholarship progr am is huge.”

In the talent portion of the competition, Wadginski had only 90 seconds to earn 40% of her score and she danced her way to the crown.

Wadginski’s win was about more than accessing her education; it was about furthering a cause. After losing a friend to suicide in 2020, Wadginski learned some sobering statistics.

“The CDC said that in 2023, 44% of high school students feel persistently sad and hopeless. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teenagers, and those stats are increasing,” Wadginski said. “While I initially chose suicide prevention as my platform, I realized I wanted to reach a younger audience.”

They only select 20 teens to join this day program each year. We went to the headquarters here in Omaha, and we got to take part in a mock hostage negotiation. We learned about the process of fingerprinting, molding footprints, and we got to see the cyber work they do.

-Maggie Wadginski