Young American: Jennifer Berry
We're halfway through our phone interview when Jennifer Berry is suddenly stumped by what appears to be a simple question -- "Where are you headed right now?" She pauses momentarily before recalling that she's on the road to Maryland to make an appearance at the Miss Maryland Outstanding Teen competition.
But you can't really blame Berry for struggling a bit to keep track of her schedule. After all, the current Miss America will travel 200,000 miles throughout the country this year raising millions of dollars for worthy causes and encouraging others to give back to their own communities. In fact, Berry and her team had just left Washington D.C. where she spent three days in Capitol Hill working on a new underage drinking prevention act developed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). She started volunteering for MADD at the age of 17 after suffering the devastating loss of a close friend and is now their national spokesperson.
Berry grew up in Tulsa, Okla., with her parents and an older sister. She became involved in beauty pageants following her senior year in high school. She was working at her mom's dance supply shop when a local pageant organizer suggested that she compete. She agreed to enter the event and finished as the fourth runner up. Berry enjoyed the experience so she participated in another local preliminary competition which she ended up winning.
In 2001, she took her first trip to the Miss Oklahoma pageant and though Berry didn't win it was there that she "fell in love with the organization." She eventually won the event on her fifth try, which qualified her to compete for the Miss America crown.
The 22-year-old education major took a year off from school after winning the national pageant in January. With the title, Berry won a $50,000 college scholarship from The Miss America Organization (missamerica.org), the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women.
Coming from a working class background Berry admits that without the pageant winnings she would have needed a student loan or another source of scholarship money because her family could not have afforded her college tuition.
The frequent traveler took a few minutes from her busy schedule to chat with YOUNG MONEY.
Were you involved in any student groups in college?
I started at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2001 and stayed for four years. I studied elementary education and I was involved in the university's school of dance. [Balancing those two endeavors] pretty much took up the majority of my time. I did a lot of things in the education department and with dancing five days a week. I've always wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl. I can't remember wanting to do anything else. So my freshman year when I entered school I chose my major as elementary education and I never changed it.
What was the biggest lesson you learned at school?
I think it was learning to balance a lot of things at once. I think attending the University of Oklahoma and being in 18 or 19 [credit] hours of school while maintaining my obligations as a local title holder really helped me learn how to be flexible and balance quite a bit at one time.
Was that the toughest part of college for you?
Definitely. I was a full time student while I was participating in a lot of different community service organizations as well. So it took up pretty much all of my time but it turned out to be very beneficial in the end.
Why did you choose preventing drunk driving and underage drinking as your social platform?
When I was 15 years old I lost a close friend in an alcohol related car crash. She was just 16 years old at the time. It was the first time that I had experienced death or had to go through any kind of process like that. Because it was alcohol related I realized that she did not have to die, and it was a 100 percent preventable death. So when I started competing at 17, I knew I had to choose a platform. The reason that I chose that platform was because of her death and how it had impacted my life and my school and my community.
How big of a problem is drunk driving and underage drinking?
MADD has made incredible strides in drunk driving prevention over the past 25 years. We have saved thousands of lives with different legislation. The .08 PAC (prohibited alcohol concentration)law that was passed during President Clinton's administration and quite a few other legislations that have gone through have really saved a lot of lives. Now we're at the forefront with underage drinking prevention. MADD added underage drinking to their mission statement in 2000, so for the past six years it's really been a big focus for MADD. But as most of us know, underage drinking is a national epidemic, far more than it ever should be, and it's unfortunately starting at younger and younger ages. So part of my mission this year as Miss America is to do what I can to help stop that by working with Capitol Hill in passing legislation related to underage drinking and also providing more education for our youth.
What can young adults do to help fix this problem?
Unfortunately, in the education system students are not getting enough education on the prevention of underage drinking and the dangers that it could have on their minds and on their bodies. I always advise parents to please talk to your children about the dangers of alcohol and how the effects can really be detrimental to their futures and goals and the things that they want to do. I often ask college students to watch out for your friends. You head off to college and mom and dad aren't around to help make good decisions. You have to take care of each other. A lesson that I learned in college was that there was nobody else around but my best friends to help me make good choices. I always wanted to watch out for people around me and create a group environment where we were taking care of each other.
Tell us about some of your most memorable experiences this year.
I've had many wonderful experiences so far but I always claim my most memorable would be my visit with the USO (United Service Organizations) tour in Washington, D.C. I was able to visit Bethesda [Naval Hospital] and Walter Reed [Army Medical Center]. Those are two of the hospitals where soldiers are flown straight from Iraq after being injured. For me, coming from a family that was involved with the military, it was very close to my heart. So I was able to tell the soldiers "thank you," which a lot of us don't get the opportunity to do one-on-one with them. I was also able to spend some time in California for Soldier Appreciation Day, and that was really neat as well. I was part of the show that we provided for the soldiers.
What are your future plans?
I fully paid my way through four years at the University of Oklahoma by competing [in pageants], and I have over $50,000 left to finish my degree and possibly pursue my masters as well. And then I will move into teaching somewhere. People always ask me if I still plan to go straight into teaching, and I tell them that it may not happen right away. The good thing about that occupation is that I will always have it there. And if I don't teach for the first five years after graduating, then I know I definitely will eventually.
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