Saturday, September 16, 2017

KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL: 2006 graduate wins national pageant


(NOTE: 2006 Kennedy High School graduate Da'Stanza Murphy was recently named the winner of the National Ms. Captivating Pageant. Writer Sue Suchyta featured Murphy in the following story written for The News-Herald Newspapers.)

A local pageant queen hopes to hold court with local girls to help them discover their inner beauty, build their self-esteem and introduce them to the power of positive thinking.

As the newly crowned National Ms. Captivating 2018 pageant winner, Da’Stanza Murphy of Taylor hopes to increase her outreach with area girls through her personal community service platform of “image inspiration through education.”

As part of her outreach she hopes to work with Girl Scout troops, since she was positively influenced by her years in Scouting.

A 2006 graduate of Taylor Kennedy High School, Murphy has beauty and brains: she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism and a Master’s degree in public relations and organizational communications from Wayne State University, and is currently an information officer for WSU’s College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts.

In addition to her 15 years of pageant experience, she also is a former dance student and instructor at Taylor Dance Program under the direction of Joy Squire, and is a superior-rated mezzo-soprano Italian opera singer.

Murphy entered the world of pageants on her own volition, and found the experience helped her to become confident and outgoing.

“It was a way for me to make friends, it was a way for me to be a part of something bigger and I liked being on stage,” she said.
Murphy said the pageantry circuit also introduced her to community service.

“The aspect that really makes one pageant different from another is having a community service platform,” she said. “My community service platform for years has been mentoring younger girls, and specifically I do a mentoring program called ‘Mentoring a Younger Me,’ that focuses on young girls in the sixth to eighth grade range.”
Murphy said middle school-age girls are going through a challenging phase during which they are transitioning and are vulnerable.

“I want them to know that somebody is there for you,” she said. “I get it, I remember what it is like to be going through puberty. I want to be that role model.”

As a former Scout, she said she likes to team up with Girl Scout troops.

“What they stand for — that girl power, supporting your sister, having a positive mindset, positive feedback — that is what I try to instill in the girls that I talk to,” she said.

Murphy said she connects with individual Girl Scout troops in the Downriver community and in other areas through the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan Council.

She has a variety of activities she uses, including what she calls “I am” boards, where each girl would pick five words to describe herself, which she said is a great activity for finding positive self-esteem building adjectives. Then she pairs each participant with a peer and has them pick five words to describe them. She has the girls share the words, and how it makes them feel.

“It really reinforces that positive mindset, positive words, especially in a day and age when bullying is on some other type of planet with social media and technology,” Murphy said.

In addition to Girl Scout troops, Murphy goes to career days and other youth events.

Basic etiquette and how to deal with bullying behavior are other topics she covers.

“They get to take home confidence, they get to take home encouragement, and they get to take home those (I am) boards,” she said. “I always say, ‘This may sound cheesy, but read this when you don’t feel good.’”

Murphy said she tries to impart the importance of being positive for their own sake and for others.

“They are going to be taking care of me someday, so I want to be sure our youth is strong,” she said.


To learn more about Captivating pageants go to captivatingpageants.com. To contact Murphy about mentoring opportunities for girls, send her an email at mscaptivatingdm@gmail.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment