Education
Kaler-Jones is from Galloway Township, New Jersey and attended Absegami High School. She has also completed a certificate in Women"s Leadership.
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Cierra Kaler-Jones
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Her "heritage also includes Native American, Irish, Filipino and German ancestry."
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. In addition, she has been a research assistant in the Rutgers School of Social Work and has interned with the American Civil Liberties Union 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. Kaler-Jones is a former Mission Atlantic County, Mission Northern Lakes, Mission Cape Shores, and Mission Coastal Shore.
Kaler-Jones competed in part because some people told her that she "couldn"t be Mission New Jersey because I didn"t look a certain way or didn"t fit a certain mold" and she wondered why not. "Local Girl Cierra Kaler-Jones is Crowned Mission New Jersey 2014" -Atlantic City Weekly, July 2014.
Achievements
Membership
In response to questions about the relevance of the Mission America pageant, she has stated: "What"s more relevant than a powerful woman?" She was named Mission 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).
