Kaitlyn Schoeffel crowned Miss New Jersey

OCEAN CITY, New Jersey -- A new Miss New Jersey was crowned in Ocean City Saturday night.

Kaitlyn Schoeffel, from Egg Harbor Township, will now represent the Garden State in the Miss America pageant in September in Atlantic City.

The 23-year-old was born in Atlantic City and beat out 27 other contestants to win the crown.

Schoeffel's platform was "operation empowerment".

Meteorologist Karen Rogers, of sister station WPVI in Philadelphia, was an emcee of the event and spoke with Schoeffel moments after the pageant ended.

"This has been a lifelong dream of mine, words can't even describe how I'm feeling right now," she said. "The support from everybody, I have no words."

Rogers was a first runner-up herself in the Miss New Jersey pageant

Coincidentally, this year's first runner-up, Olivia Michael, performed the same piece on the piano that Rogers did when she was a contestant.