Cierra Kaler-Jones

Cierra Kaler-Jones is Miss New Jersey 2014. She is the second African American to win the title of Miss New Jersey after Suzette Charles in 1983. Her "heritage also includes Native American, Irish, Filipino and German ancestry."

Background

Kaler-Jones is from Galloway Township, New Jersey and attended Absegami High School. She is a first generation college student at Rutgers University majoring in social work, with a triple minor in women's and gender studies, critical and comparative race and ethnic studies, and criminology. She spent her first three years at Rutgers on the nationally ranked Rutgers University Dance Team. She has also completed a certificate in Women's Leadership. In addition, she has been a research assistant in the Rutgers School of Social Work and has interned with the ACLU of New Jersey and the criminal justice division of the state attorney general's office.

Kaler-Jones plans to pursue a joint law degree with a master's in education policy, for a career in education law and policy. She states that she has "always wanted to be a lawyer" and hopes to advocate for "equal opportunities for all students, particularly in urban and at-risk districts." Her Long term goal is to become the United States Secretary of Education.

Pageants

Kaler-Jones is a former Miss Atlantic County, Miss Northern Lakes, Miss Cape Shores, and Miss Coastal Shore. In response to questions AbOUT the relevance of the Miss America pageant, she has stated: "What's more relevant than a powerful woman?" She was named Miss New Jersey 2014 on June 14 with the platform: "Empowering Today’s Youth Through Arts Education." Her talent is a self-choreographed contemporary dance to Beyoncé's "Listen" (she is a member of Rutgers Dance Team).

Kaler-Jones competed in part because some people told her that she "couldn't be Miss New Jersey because I didn't look a certain way or didn't fit a certain mold" and she wondered why not.

Video interviews

• "Local Girl Cierra Kaler-Jones is Crowned Miss New Jersey 2014" -Atlantic City Weekly, July 2014.