Meet Cierra

Cierra Kaler-Jones is a 21-year-old native of Galloway Township, New Jersey and currently resides in New Brunswick, NJ. She was crowned Miss Coastal Shore in August of 2013 and will compete in June 2014 for the title of Miss New Jersey, a preliminary to the Miss America scholarship pageant.

Education and Background

Cierra graduated in the top 5% of her class from Absegami High School in June of 2011, where she was Student Council President, National Honor Society Corresponding Secretary, a varsity field hockey player, Mock Trial team attorney, and a choreographer for the dance company. She is currently a rising senior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she is studying Social Work on a pre-law track through the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program and ranks in the top 10% of her class. Her minors and other interests include Womens' & Gender Studies, Critical & Comparative Race & Ethnic Studies, and Criminology. She is interested in pursuing public interest law, in hopes of one day venturing into the field of educational law and policy so that she can affect macro level change in building substantial public school curriculum that is understandable, relatable, and tangible to today's students, in hopes of cultivating the next generation of well-rounded and diverse leaders.

In only her first year, she was accepted to the Institute of Women's Leadership Scholars Program, a two-year interdisciplinary certificate program, and the Barbara Voorhees Mentor Program, where she served as a teaching assistant and mentor for first-year, transfer, and non-traditional students within the Douglass Residential College mission course "Knowledge & Power: Issues in Women's Leadership." Outside of academia, you can find Cierra at every Rutgers home football and basketball game, cheering on the Scarlet Knights as a member of the nationally-ranked Rutgers University Dance Team. Cierra founded the campus chapter of She's the First, a non-profit organization that sponsors girls' education in developing nations, and currently serves as the President. She is also the Head Chairwoman of the Douglass Orientation Committee, a group focused on planning and implementing Douglass Residential College's annual Fall Convocation. Cierra is a Red Pine Ambassador for Douglass Residential College and a Summer Orientation Leader. She also works as a Research Assistant for the New Jersey Child Welfare Training Partnership through the Institute for Families at the Rutgers University School of Social Work. In this past year, Cierra has interned with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, She's the First, The Office of the Attorney General-Criminal Justice Division, and the Center for American Women and Politics.  

Platform

Empowering Today's Youth through Arts Education 

Cierra's work with the arts began about five years ago when her public high school's Board of Education cut the arts programs from its curriculum and select after-school programs. She was directly affected because she had been an active member and student of the Absegami Advanced Dance class and Absegami Company Dance, two prestigious programs she worked for years to get accepted into. When she was elected spokeswoman of the cause by her peers, she had no idea her lifelong hobby would soon become a pivotal aspect in the lives of others. She was forced to reflect on the intangible positives the arts gave her, including the agency to be a leader and find her voice as an advocate. As a result, she went to the Greater Egg Harbor School Board meetings, delivered speeches detailing the importance of arts education in public schools and its beneficial affects on her life, and wrote comments to The Press of Atlantic City, speaking in favor of reinstating the arts programs. A few months later she learned her efforts had assisted in the reinstatement of all art programs. From this experience, she made it her mission to advocate arts education, share her passion with others, and be a catalyst for change.

Cierra was born with a developmental dysplasia of the hips and had to wear a Pavlik harness in order for the hip ball and socket join to develop correctly. As a child born with a physical disability, the arts were her tool to overcome her hardship, and gave her a goal to work towards. Dancing was her motivation to physically push herself and if her hip had not been able to heal, she would have needed help to lead a more physically capable life. She feels so strongly about the arts because through dance, she can communicate beyond words and express herself. Her sole goal is to inspire every child to have that passion that makes them feel as though they can defy the odds. 

To promote her platform and provide a new opportunity for the youth in Southern and Central New Jersey, Cierra founded The Arts Empowerment Project which uses visual & performing arts as a strategy to empower economically disadvantaged young women & girls. She offers free arts lessons in the art forms of visual arts, acting, dancing, and singing and allows children to produce and perform in their own showcases. Over two hundred children have been involved in the program, and that number continues to flourish. She spearheaded and now presents a series of "arts empowerment" workshops throughout the state of New Jersey, which use arts lessons as a tool for underprivileged students to confidently reach their highest potential and challenge them outside of their comfort zones. She hopes to expand her program throughout the state of New Jersey and turn it into a non-profit organization within her year of service as Miss Coastal Shore. This program opened many doors for her to spread her advocacy of arts education to churches, public schools, and other organized groups. 

Cierra is currently partnered with South-Jersey based non-profit U.N.I.T.Y - Uniting Our Neighborhoods and Investing Time in our Youth in which she gives "arts empowerment" presentations to urban youth and serves as a mentor to a group of middle and high school students in Atlantic City. She has been working with the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey, whose Outreach Program has allowed her to initiate arts, leadership, service, and public speaking workshops. This past May, Cierra started her own troop of Daisies and Brownies in Millville, New Jersey. She volunteered at Pine Grove Nursery School in New Brunswick, New Jersey as an assistant teacher and implemented an arts and crafts segment twice a week. She also serves as an advocate and volunteer for Children's Specialized Hospital, New Jersey's only Children's Miracle Network Hospital. Cierra is always looking for new partners and ways to expand her outreach. 

"There is nothing like seeing the looks on the childrens' faces when I tell them my story and the eagerness and openness they have to learning different art forms. Their minds are so readily open to learn, but sometimes they just don’t have the opportunity or the resources placed in front of them. My job is to give them that opportunity." 

To book Cierra for an appearance or a performance, please contact Michael McCann, Miss Coastal Shore's local director at mmccann19@gmail.com, or Cierra at ckalerjones@gmail.com.