Vanderbilt alum competing for Miss America
Justine Ker - Miss Louisiana
Vanderbilt alum Justine Ker will be competing for the Miss America title
Posted: Monday, August 22, 2016 3:15 pm | Updated: 3:43 pm, Mon Aug 22, 2016.
In about a week, Justine Ker, a recent Class of 2016 graduate, will head to Atlantic City to begin the preliminary, all culminating in the live televised Miss America event next month.
For Justine, the summer following her senior year was supposed to be the calm before the intensity of medical school. However, Justine knew that by trying her hand at the competition one last time, she had the opportunity to make an impact and to earn money towards her continued education.
It all started with a mentorship program for young women and girls. “In 2005, I got to be a princess, a mentee, to a girl who was part of the Miss Louisiana program,” Ker said. “I learned what the Miss Louisiana program was all about. I saw that it was not so much the beauty competition other see. Miss America and its state programs are about Women’s Empowerment and encouraging women to succeed.”
While Kerr’s interest was piqued initially, she first began to compete in 2009 after being encouraged and helped by her piano teacher.
“I had no idea what I was doing. My teacher did my hair, I made friends with lots of girls and ultimately got a first runner up at state during that competition,” Ker said.
Ker continued to compete throughout her teenage years, winning various titles and earning scholarship funds that she used to help pay for her Vanderbilt education.
“When college started, I decided to take time off to just be a student and to experience college in a normal way," she said. "Then in Junior year I jumped back in for more of the experience I missed and to try my hand at earning more money toward my med school education.”
Ker got runner-up in junior year but won the coveted state title of Miss Louisiana her senior year, qualifying her to compete for Miss America.
All of this isn’t just a beauty pageant. Instead, there is a work component. Being Miss Louisiana is a salaried job, one that has required Miss Ker to defer her start to medical school so that she can focus on representing her state in Miss Louisiana appearances.
“I thought I knew what it meant to be busy at Vanderbilt, but this work is a whole new level,” she said. “Between rehearsing, physical training, interviews, and promoting my platform of promoting positive mental health, I get up and go all day. There is not enough time in the day for all I want to do, but I’m relishing every moment of this special year.”
Pageants have gotten a bad reputation in the past, but Justine shares her own perspective.
“The women I meet here are bright, inspiring, talented,” she said. “They stand for the cause, not the crown.”
Justine’s cause of promoting positive mental health is something she has shown passion for throughout her life, having worked for the cause in both LEAPS and the Jed Foundation on campus. She has been able to bring that message to the people in her state as a result.
One woman will be crowned Miss America and take on the role of National Goodwill Ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals while promoting their own platform as well. There is a chance that Vanderbilt’s Justine Ker could be that woman.
The competition will take place on ABC at 8 p.m. on Sept. 11 with representatives from every state across the country.
http://www.vanderbilthustler.com/life/article_2ffd5372-6880-11e6-95e5-3f00985e7ffc.html
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