The pageants also provide her the opportunity to perform and promote her other passion, community service. "My platform is service learning," she says. "I talk about it in my interview and promote it throughout the Miss America venue."

Mullen cannot overstress the impact community service has had on her life.

As a Saint Anselm student, through the Center for Volunteers, Mullen became a mentor for a 13-year-old girl whose mother had passed away. She remains in contact with the girl and reminds her how important it is to keep her grades up.

In her senior year, she traveled to Peru to work in a community center helping with crafts and drama at a day camp for kids.

"I love to talk about my Peru trip," she says. "It was the pivotal event that contributed to my desire to teach."

"Teaching is a service and has great rewards," says Mullen. "I feel I have been called to be a teacher."

Today Mullen is following that calling. She is in her final year of the PACT (Providence Alliance for Catholic Teachers) program at Providence College taking courses each summer; teaching at a Catholic school and living in a faith community with three other women and two men in a retired convent during the school year.

Last year Mullen taught eighth and ninth grade algebra, eleventh grade pre-calculus and ninth grade religion at St. Mary's Junior-Senior High School in Worcester, Mass. She also maintained a rigorous dance schedule and directed the school's production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

"Through my religious teaching and my dancing, I try to be a person of faith," she says. "I credit faith and prayer in my ability to do anything. In life you have to make choices. I have faith and moral guidance for the big issues. Everyday stress is the small picture. You have to keep life in perspective and in balance."

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