Miss Pennsylvania to Attend Governor's Awards for the Arts

Kendria Perry was crowned Miss Pennsylvania 2008 on Saturday July 12, 2008 in Nazareth, PA. The 23 year old from Pittsburgh is currently a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, where she was the recipient of a $40,000 Academic Scholarship. Kendria is also a Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Scholarship recipient, a William Zimmerman Scholar, and a recipient of the 2007 Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

Her career ambition is to complete a masters degree in Arts Management and work as director of development, or community outreach for a professional arts organization. Kendria formerly served as a Special Assistant in the office of Senator Elizabeth Dole and she has recently completed an internship at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
Throughout the year, Kendria will travel the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania making appearances, hosting events, and acting as a spokesperson and advocate for youth involvement in the arts through her chosen platform, “Art Works!”

An accomplished musician, her talent for the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant was a classical piano piece. A 2006 graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, Kendria obtained a Bachelor of Music degree under the tutelage of pianist Clifton Matthews. Kendria has also studied piano at L’ Académie de Musique in Sion, Switzerland. She is the daughter of Kevin and Shirley Perry.

She will represent the Keystone State in the Miss America Pageant at Planet Hollywood Casino, Las Vegas, in January 2009.

Read the article about Kendria from Carnegie Mellon >
...Perry believes that experiences in the arts can help equip students with many of the skills they will need to be competitive in the 21st century workplace — skills such as self discipline, effective communication, the ability to think creatively to solve problems and the ability to deal with ambiguity and complexity.

"As an artist, I came into the program with a strong foundation in performance and strong conceptual leanings in terms of my vision for re-shaping the cultural landscape," she said. "The MAM program has challenged me to be more strategic in my thinking and to quantify those ideas in a way that makes real business sense."

Growing up, Perry trained to be a concert pianist and dreamed of performing on the "big stages." She'll put classical music in the spotlight when she competes in Las Vegas for the Miss America title in January, hopefully getting to play a piece by her favorite composer Frederick Chopin...