Faith (Kiperstin) Schway receives International Award

Former Miss St. Louis Park (1970) and Mrs. Minnesota-America (1985), Faith (Kiperstin) Schway, has been named “Best Pageant Coach” at the First Annual Global Beauty Awards, held this past weekend in Seattle, Washington.

Upon receiving the award, Mrs. Schway had this to say: “To be recognized by my peers throughout the world of Pageantry with this honor has been a wonderful and truly humbling experience. I have loved every moment I have spent not only in this industry, but as an integral part of the growth and development of thousands of women from every corner of the globe. It is a labor of love!”

Coaching winners from 16 states and 6 countries, Schway is in her 36th year of coaching talented women in a multitude of pageants from Miss Teen to Miss World. From Miss Deaf USA to a former Fargo hockey player who was recently crowned Miss World-America, she has lived her passion of developing women’s beauty and grace everywhere. One of her students, a victim of leukemia, Heather Ribbe, inspired Schway to found “Pageantry Against Cancer,” benefitting the American Cancer Society, bringing true meaning to her slogan, “You Gotta Have Faith!” In 2009, the St. Paul Pioneer Press named her the “beauty whisperer,”and she has also been Knighted by King Boreas as “Maker of Queens” at the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

Schway founded (in 1982) and still runs the Premiere School of Self-improvement and Professional Modeling, in St. Louis Park. She and her husband Carl, have co-directed the Mrs. Minnesota-America Pageant since 1990.