What are your hobbies?
My hobbies include singing, dancing, cheerleading, working out, shopping, spending time with family and friends, and attending Ole Miss athletic events.

What makes you special and unique?
My determination and drive. For as long as I can remember, I have been told if you are passionate about something, keep pursuing it until you achieve it.

What is the best advice you have ever received?
After a bad day at school, my Mom once told me, "Don't waste your time worrying about what other people are thinking about you, because they are too busy worrying about what you are thinking about them!" I learned this at a very young age and still find it to be absolutely true.

Name one thing you cannot live without.
I could not live without my digital camera because it helps me to "capture the moment". It also helps me to remember all the fun times I have with family and friends!

What is the most valuable lesson you ever learned?
Be yourself! Don't compromise who you are and what you believe to please others. If you do, you lose confidence in who you really are.

Who is your most valued role model and why?
Without question, my grandfather is my most valued role model! He is such an amazing man. In spite of major health problems, he never misses a singing engagement, cheerleading competition, or pageant. He is like the root at the bottom of a tree. You may not always be able to see the root; but if it weren't there, that tree couldn't live. He is so incredibly wise and selfless. If I find in my future mate half of my grandfather's attributes, I will be a huge winner!

What was your most unexpected moment?
Being crowned Miss Heritage was the most unexpected and amazing moment of my life! I had laryngitis and actually came off stage after my talent with tears in my eyes because I knew that was not my best performance. Hearing my name called as the winner was definitely overwhelming.

What is your workout routine?
Usually, I go to the gym five days of the week. While there, I spend about an hour doing cardio and thirty minutes doing weight training. I also enjoy swimming laps in the indoor pool a couple of nights a week.

What has been your biggest accomplishment to date?
My biggest accomplishment to date would be winning the title of Miss Heritage! This has opened many doors for me and has enabled me to further promote my platform of "Improving the Lives of Children with Muscular Dystrophy".

What is the best compliment you have ever received?
After being named Most Beautiful at Madison Central High School, my friend, Katie, told me that I was the most deserving girl on the stage. In an unexpected letter I received the following day, she said I was not only beautiful on the outside, but I was beautiful on the inside, as well. She said I was genuine. This meant so much to me because I have always been taught "pretty is as pretty does".

What is your secret wish?
My secret wish is to meet Martina McBride! She is such a talented, inspirational and selfless woman! She doesn't get caught up in being a celebrity. She is very down to earth and spends a lot of her hard-earned money and time working with charities and helping people in need.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
At cheerleading try-outs one year, I completely messed up the words to the cheer! I yelled, "Make some noise, stomp your hands, and clap your feet!" I was so embarrassed because the principal of the school was sitting in on the try-outs! She never let me live that down. To this day, if I see her she'll say, "Oh really, Kelly, you want me to do what now? Make some noise, stomp my hands and clap my feet? Would you like to demonstrate that for us, Kelly?"

What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
My biggest guilty pleasure is going to Alumni House after a pageant with my "support team" and eating a big, juicy cheeseburger and an enormous piece of cheesecake.

What is your favorite movie and why?
The Notebook! I'm a hopeless romantic! I love the story it tells. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.

What is your favorite color and why?
I LOVE the color turquoise! It's bright and bubbly, and it makes me happy!

What do you like to do for fun... relaxation... recreation?
My favorite thing to do for fun is to curl up on the couch with some girl friends and my dog, Pooh, and watch a movie. For relaxation, I get my grandmother to scratch my back! I also love to go to the park and play tennis after having a picnic.

What would be your dream vacation or destination?
I would love to get the chance to go to Hawaii; because I enjoy going to the beach, and it would interest me to see the differences in culture.

What do you like best about your hometown?
Madison is one of the top ten cities in the nation to rear your family. This gives me much pride in being from Madison.

What do you like best about the state of Mississippi, besides our food & hospitality?
I love that we Mississippians are not suffocated by big buildings, and we don't have to worry about being clustered by the busy city life. We can focus on the true beauty of nature.

What's in your CD player or on your iPod right now?
Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood dominate both my CD player and my iPod. They both have such soothing voices! If I am having a bad day, they can both serve as my therapy for relaxation.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In ten years, I plan to be working as a physical therapist in an outpatient setting, married to the man of my dreams.

Who am I?
Inseparable from my essence as a person and a contestant is my obsession with music. Since my formal introduction to this art in middle school choir, where I learned the technical facets of vocal performance, I began to experience the unmatched power and long-range transformation that this medium invokes when one is open to it as a passive listener. This moved me to work, to assume an active part as a soloist, so that I might someday effect in another individual the same personal evolution that music had jumpstarted within me.

Aside from my musical undertaking, I decided to focus my academics on the prerequisites of Physical Therapy school. I can trace this interest back to my freshman year in high school when, during a cheerleading drill, I tore my achilles tendon and had to undergo physical therapy to regain the strength and coordination intrinsic to the kinetic demands of cheering. Though the rigors of therapy were cumbersome and painful, I progressively renewed my stamina and dexterity and thus returned to competitive cheerleading in my sophomore year. My recovery through the practice of physical therapy inspired me to aid others in their rehabilitation.

Tell us about your occupational experience.
I am currently employed as a tanning associate at The Solarium Tanning Salon in Madison. In my experiences working here, I have come to love my job and the environment it provides. The friendly atmosphere allows me to have fun and meet many interesting people. Many of my co-workers and customers have become dear friends of mine who will remain a part of my life forever.

Being employed at The Solarium has given me a sense of individuality and has helped me mature in certain aspects of life. I have been trusted with more responsibilities as a working woman that allow me to broaden my horizons. I have also learned the value of a dollar and the meaning of hard work. I strive to be an efficient employee and handle my job the best way I know how. In doing so, I have learned to defuse conflicts and stand up for myself. It is important to me to always please the customers and keep them informed on the benefits of tanning and skin care, while admonishing them on the dangers of overexposure.

I plan to utilize all I have learned to excel in my future career. Every lesson I have learned can be of significance in the years to come. I will always value my job at The Solarium because it has introduced me into the working world and shaped me for whatever lies in my path ahead.

Tell us about your platform.
My platform issue is "Improving the lives of Children with Muscular Dystrophy". First of all, I became interested in helping patients with Muscular Dystrophy about ten years ago after attending Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) summer camp with my mom. My mom is a nurse practitioner who works with patients that have Muscular Dystrophy and other neurological diseases. Over the years, listening to my mom's stories touched me and made me quite thankful and reflective upon things taken for granted every day, such as walking.

Furthermore, while a junior in high school, I became ill with meningitis which was later determined to be the West Nile Virus. I became imbalanced and unable to walk and recovery took months. Not being able to do the things I normally did such as work out, run, cheerlead, dance, sing, or even walk gave me a temporary glimpse of what children with Muscular Dystrophy endure.