The newly crowned Queen of the Snows is also a math queen.
Ashleigh Hayes, 22, of St. Paul is expected to graduate cum laude from the University of St. Thomas this spring with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. Already paying it forward, she volunteers as a math tutor at the Laura Jeffrey Academy, an all-girls charter school for fifth through eighth grades in St. Paul.
“I tell the girls that there are a lot of cool things you can do with math, that it’s not just something you learn in eighth grade and never use again,” Hayes said. “I still use the Pythagorean theorem.”
(All hail the St. Paul subjects who know what she means.)
Hayes, who was crowned Friday night as the 2012 Aurora, Queen of the Snows of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, plans to use math every day in her career: Months before graduating, Hayes already has accepted a job as a marketing engineer at a local company.
Not so many years ago, though, Hayes was just like the girls she tutors – a St. Paul student trying to get her head around math.
“It’s not natural; I have to work at it,” Hayes said Saturday during an interview on the royal bus and during a lunch of Juicy Lucys at Casper and Runyon’s Shamrocks on West Seventh Street. “I use my own story to help give them confidence. Math is important to master, even though it’s hard. And it can be done.”
St. Paul had a role in that mastery – Hayes was educated in the city’s public schools, from Highwood Hills Elementary on the East Side to Highland Park Junior High to Como Park High School.
“I think it took some good instructors and some successes for Ashleigh to gain confidence in her skills at math and science,” said her mother, Debra Hayes.
St. Thomas also played a role.
“In sixth grade, Ashleigh attended St. Thomas’ Science Technology & Engineering Preview Summer Camp for Girls (STEPS),” the queen’s mother said. “I think it was that camp that gave her a love of science and math and engineering. And, frankly, when she decided she wanted to go to college at St. Thomas.”
Hayes is also teaching the next generation that it’s OK to be a scientist in a tiara: She recently finished serving as the 2010-11 Queen of the Rice Street Festival, her Winter Carnival sponsor. She was also the Winter Carnival’s 2005 Junior Royalty Queen of the Snowflakes.
“When my Girl Scout troop disbanded in junior high, I was looking for a new way to get involved, and a family friend told me about the carnival’s junior royalty,” Hayes said. “The royal family took me under their wing. I absorbed the Winter Carnival culture and legend, and I absolutely loved it.”
When pressed, the new queen admits that she sometimes endures a bit of razzing from her fellow engineering students, who aren’t exactly a tiara- and sash-wearing crowd (in her electrical engineering class of about 40 students, she said, she is one of five women). One comment she recalls: “So you want to be a princess?”
“I tell them the goal is not to wear a crown; the goal is to be active in my community,” she said.
The judges liked that about her.
“You can tell that she really cares about St. Paul,” said Greg Kuntz, head judge.
That includes our city’s famous festival.
“I’ve been a St. Paul girl my whole life, so my memories of winter are all tied up with the Winter Carnival,” Hayes said.
“The year she was born, I decided to collect Winter Carnival buttons for her, so we got one every year,” her mom said.
“I always found them in my Christmas stocking,” Hayes said.
One of her earliest memories, in fact, is related to the carnival.
“I was 4 when the Klondike Kates sang to me at a restaurant,” the queen said. “I remember feeling so special that each of them took the time to talk to me. I felt so important. As someone who grew up in St. Paul, I just can’t explain how honored I am to represent my city and to be part of a tradition that spreads joy.”
She takes carnival joy seriously.
“I don’t see it as a yearlong commitment,” the queen said, “I see it as a lifetime commitment.”
No doubt, said Kuntz.
“Everything she does, she does with dedication,” said the head judge.
The queen’s mother agreed – with a prediction.
“I think St. Paul will be very proud of her,” she said.
Molly Guthrey can be reached at 651-228-5505.
Copyright 2012 Pioneer Press.