June 6, 2026
VIROQUA Wis. – Viroqua High School/Middle School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Olivia Lulich is taking her passion for farming from the classroom to the national stage after being crowned the 2026 Miss Wisconsin USA.
Lulich, 24, celebrated her victory with her students during a school assembly on June 3 where she reflected on the time and dedication it took to reach this milestone.
“This has been a goal of mine for 18 years, so something I spent a large majority of my life preparing for,” said Lulich. She won the state title on May 30 in Des Moines, Iowa, the second consecutive year that the state pageant has been staged there.
Lulich, a native of Lyndon Station who began work with the Viroqua School District in August 2024, plans to use her new title as a platform to educate a broader audience about the critical importance of agriculture. She noted that the topic is not commonly discussed in the pageant sector making it a unique and vital message to share.
“Being in pageantry agriculture is not a topic that is commonly covered but being an agriculture teacher it is super important to me because 100 percent of our world needs food fiber and fuel to survive,” said Lulich. “So I have kind of made that my mission to promote agriculture on this national level platform and be able to highlight our hard working American farmers and the important role that they play in our society”.
Lulich also emphasized her mission called one to 100 which focuses on the idea that the one percent of the population involved in agriculture sustains the entire world. She expressed pride in representing that one percent and using her title to teach students and the public about the industry.
The pageant experience and her role as a teacher have deeply interconnected especially when it comes to gaining confidence and mastering public speaking. Lulich experienced a meaningful moment when her FFA officer team introduced her at the school assembly.
“It was so much fun having my (FFA) officer team introduce me having now been their teacher for two years and being able to coach them about the importance of public speaking,” said Lulich. “It was definitely a full circle moment to get that one on one interaction with them and seeing those skills come to life in front of the student body today”.
Last May 2025, Lulich was among the six finalists for the 2025 Alice in Dairyland title in Prairie du Chien. She is a 2024 agriculture education graduate of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Looking ahead to the next year Lulich will continue her duties as an educator while preparing to compete against women from across the country.
“My next step is to compete at Miss USA,” said Lulich. “That will be the end of August in Miami”. The national pageant will celebrate its 75th anniversary, and the winner there will advance to the 2026 Miss Universe pageant this November in Puerto Rico.
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