Scholar promotes positive mental well-being
Newly crowned Miss Shreveport, Justine Ker, is a very busy lady these days.
Studying for a medical school entrance exam while at the same time preparing for state competition at the Miss Louisiana Pageant would likely be deemed challenging by most of us, but this 20-year-old, Asian-American beauty from Choudrant has already proved she possesses the right amount of confidence and the necessary ability to bring both her academic and pageant ambitions to fruition.
Even before her 2012 senior year of high school at Cedar Creek School in Ruston, Ker consistently maintained a 4.0 grade point average in the midst of holding positions on Student Council, Key Club and National Honor Society and while winning multiple awards in music, science and math and performing as pianist at the Lincoln Parish Events Center as well as first violinist in the Monroe Youth Symphony Orchestra. Add the fact that she won Louisiana’s Outstanding Teen Pageant to the same time frame of all the above, and proof of a young life brimming with incredible achievement and promise is clearly established.
It’s redundant to say the current Miss Shreveport is a disciplined, goal-oriented and focused young woman.
Currently a junior on full scholarship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., Ker is majoring in neuroscience with her minor in psychology and will enter medical school following graduation in 2016 and plans to be a neurologist. However, her aspirations in the medical field haven’t overshadowed those related to her musical skill. She continues piano study which she began at the age of 5 and is, indeed, an extraordinary pianist. She performs on piano for her pageant competition talent, and listening to her play is quite a treat.
Ker is the daughter of Jenevieve and Jun-Ing and sister to older brother, Cappi, who is a student at Louisiana Tech University. Her father is an engineering professor at Tech, and her mother is the quintessential homemaker and a fantastic gourmet level cook – with secret recipes in her files.
One has to spend only a short time with the Ker family to sense that Dr. and Mrs. Kerr have lovingly guided and encouraged their children to explore life’s possibilities and to discover their own personal unique potential and passions. They made world travel an important factor in Ker’s and Cappi’s upbringing.
“Our parents wanted us to have a greater world view and cultural mindset,” Ker said. Her involvement in the pageant circuit has been and continues to be a family-on-board adventure. It is also providing financial bonuses for mother and father in the cost of education department. Since entering pageants six years ago, Ker has been awarded over $100,000 in scholarships. She believes her participation in the pageant system is helping to shape her. “I’m learning to be a role model for others, I’m learning to speak to audiences and how to communicate with people in everyday life. I’m creating so many memories by being in the program, and I’m meeting so many new friends. It’s been one of the greatest experiences of my life,” she said.
The Miss Shreveport Scholarship Pageant has become one of the most coveted titles in the state due to the leadership of director Dr. Ed Johnson, who leaves no stone unturned for each new winner as she is groomed for the next level at the Miss Louisiana Pageant.
A prep team is assigned to work with her in each segment of competition from evening gown elegance to swimsuit fitness to talent presentation to interview ability. Much of Ker’s time, aside from her studies, will be filled with lessons and practice to address and fine-tune these phases and to further develop her community service platform, A Beautiful Mind: Promoting Positive Mental Wellbeing. This topic is a natural choice as she is currently president of a mental health program at Vanderbilt that serves students with psychological issues, and she was recently selected to the Student Advisory Council of the Jed Foundation, which was set up in 2000 by two parents who lost their son to suicide while attending college. The foundation works to create healthier, safer and more connected campuses across the nation.
“As a college student, I saw myself and my peers struggle with sleeping well, managing time, studying efficiently and balancing social life and academics. We need to do a better job teaching youth and adults how to handle these situations,” she said. “I want to become more informed about mental health and assist in finding ways to help reduce the negativity surrounding it. I’ve come to realize that mental health doesn’t only concern mental illness but that it concerns stressors in our daily lives that keep us from taking better care of both our minds and bodies.” She recognizes in the future when she is practicing neurology, a keen understanding of her patients’ emotional needs will help her to be a more effective physician. Participation in these programs now is giving her that edge, she believes.
If the judges at the Miss Louisiana Pageant in June 2015 are looking for scholastic accomplishment, uncommon musical talent, impeccable manners and a graceful spirit along with poise and physical beauty, all embodied in one person, Miss Shreveport certainly should bring home the crown.
– Jo Ann Garner
