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Kristen E. White
Lights, Camera, Action! All her life Kristen E. White was told if you can dream it, you can achieve it. On June 23, 2008 under the bright lights of Las Vegas, Kristen White, Miss Black Georgia’s dream came true when she captured the coveted crown of Miss Black USA 2008 and won a $20,000 academic scholarship, along with a walk-on role on Tyler Perry’s hit sitcom, the House of Payne, a 7 day/6 night trip to the Grand Bahamas Island, a 4-week acting summer intensive scholarship to the New York Conservatory, School for Television and Film, a year-long membership to Bally’s Total Fitness, a personal training package and a host of other prizes and opportunities.
The 27 year old Georgia native attended Tennessee State University where she majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. While most pageant queens dress up only when they’re on camera, looking good off-camera is Kristen’s full-time job. Her modeling career landed her in several national publications and she has walked the catwalk for Betsy Johnson, Diane Von Furstenburg and Sherri Hill for Jovani. The American-Idol semi-finalist says her greatest passion is serving others, especially children.
Several years ago, Kristen founded Project Protect, an educational reference program she developed to spread the message of awareness and prevention of missing and exploited children. For every Elizabeth Smart, Samantha Runion or Jessica Lunsford, there are countless others we never hear about; Kristen’s best friend being one of them. She says, although they are adults now, the discovery of her frightening abduction at the age of 8 simply floored her. She was returned safely, but there are so many children that are not as fortunate. With the ubiquity of the Internet, children and teens have become even more vulnerable, as 1 in 5 children will be sexually propositioned over the Internet before they turn 18. A force is needed to bring these issues the attention they merit and galvanize the public and private sectors to work as partners to eradicate this problem. Protecting children from abduction and exploitation is an issue of universal relevance and importance on a local, state, national and international level.
In addition to serving as the national representative for the Miss Black USA organization and promoting their national partnership with the Heart Truth campaign, Kristen plans to continue her work with Project Protect.
The Miss Black USA Pageant celebrated its 21 year anniversary this year. The theme of the 2008 pageant was “Dream it!” and opened with a captivating performance by Kia Talein Anderson-DeJuan, gospel recording artist and former Miss Black Maryland 1993. Kia performed her newly released CD entitled “Dream.” Runner Ups were: Melissa “Safiya” McClinton , “Miss Black Massachusetts” (1st Runner Up); Sonja McCord “Miss Black West Virginia” (2nd Runner Up); Audrey Cox, “Miss Black North Carolina” (3rd Runner Up); and Brittany Carradine, “Miss Black Oklahoma” (4th Runner Up).
The Miss Black USA Pageant and Scholarship Foundation, Inc., is non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunity to young women of color and to develop the whole woman, mind, body and spirit.
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