Meet the Queen Scholar of the 500 Festival

Indianapolis, Indiana – The 500 Festival Princess Program chooses 33 academically motivated women from Indiana who are enrolled in a state college each year to represent their community and institution as representatives.

Mykah Coleman attended Indianapolis Shortridge High School and is a junior education student at Marian University. She thinks that sharing her princess program experience will motivate her future pupils.

“I plan to go back and teach at schools that need me the most, that don’t have that much recognition, and that have students from low socioeconomic backgrounds just to give back to the community because that’s how I grew up and look where I am today.”

Coleman was awarded a scholarship of roughly $2,500 as the 2023 500 Festival Queen Scholar.

“The Queen Scholar is just the representative of the class of princesses for the year so luckily I was chosen due to the number of outreaches I’ve done and the type of outreaches I’ve done,” Coleman explained.

She will wear the distinctive 500 Festival 500 as Queen Scholar. The Queen’s Crown will represent the 500 Festival at events throughout the year and take part in the Indianapolis 500’s Victory Circle and pre-race festivities on Sunday.

More than 2,000 Indiana women have had the pleasure of being chosen as a 500 Festival Princess since the program’s inception in 1959.

Coleman is the fourth Black Queen Scholar in the program.

“I get to represent and speak up for the underserved and underprivileged communities, especially the little black and brown girls; this is just warming my heart.”