Ramsay graduate conquers adversity on road to Miss Collegiate America crown
Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin and Kennedy Whisenant (Photo source: City of Birmingham)
By Chanda Temple
Ramsay High School graduate Kennedy Whisenant has been competing in pageants since she was 15 years old.
Now at the age of 21, she admits she’s lost more competitions than she’s won.
But in June 2022, all those loses prepared her for the biggest win of her pageant career, and that was being crowned Miss Collegiate America, a scholarship program for female students enrolled in a continuing education program. As a student at Clark Atlanta University, Kennedy’s national win gave her a $10,000 scholarship, a Jeep and a deep sense of knowing that God’s timing is always right on time.
For you see, in 2019, Kennedy competed for Miss Collegiate America, but she didn’t win. In fact, she placed 37th out of 50 contestants. It was her lowest placing ever in her pageant history.
She took that loss as a sign that she needed to do more.
She needed to work on her skills for pageant contests. She needed to remain focused on college and maintain her 3.5 GPA. And she needed to prepare herself to know how to carry the weight of being a national pageant winner.
She did that, and more. She’s appeared on the Dean’s List every semester at Clark Atlanta. She was selected as Miss Freshman at Clark Atlanta. She collected various pageant titles in different competitions before winning the national title in 2022. She became a mentor for young ladies, and she was selected as one of Glamour Magazine’s College Women of the Year- HBCU Edition in fall 2022. (Kennedy represented Georgia when she was named Miss Collegiate America because she was a student at Clark Atlanta. Her win can be seen on http://www.americashighschoolpageant.com.)
Down the road, she’d like to compete in the Miss USA pageant. But for now, she’s focused on graduating and tackling the next chapters of her life.
“God’s timing is a funny thing, but we have to have faith, and let Him take control,” Kennedy said. “What is for for me is for me and no one else.”
Kennedy’s road to victory has not come without twists and turns. Right before Kennedy started her freshman year at Clark Atlanta, her mother, Cindy Whisenant, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive form of breast cancer, especially for African-American women. Kennedy debated if she should switch colleges and stay in Birmingham to be closer to her mother.
But Cindy would not hear of it. An Army veteran and nurse, Cindy wanted Kennedy to pursue her studies at Clark Atlanta and continue to compete in pageants. Cindy was determined to fight breast cancer for the both of them.
“I dropped her off for college on Aug. 8, 2019, and I started chemo Aug. 11, 2019,” said Cindy, who underwent 26 weeks of chemo. In fall 2020, Cindy had a double mastectomy. Throughout her cancer battle, Cindy still attended Kennedy’s competitions.
“Girl, I have pictures where I just showed up bald and sick. I wasn’t going to let her be alone,” said Cindy. “I knew I had to be there for her.”
Today, Cindy said she is in remission.
In looking back on everything the two of them have experienced, Kennedy remains in awe of her mother. (A divorcee who experienced fertility issues, Cindy adopted Kennedy when she was three days old. And ever since, Cindy has been Kennedy’s biggest cheerleader.)
“She always finds a way to make things happen,” Kennedy said of her mother. “It’s just us. Me and her, and she has to play a lot of roles all of the time.”
Cindy’s praise of Kennedy is equally as high.
“She just has no quit. None,” Cindy said. “You do know that she walked at five months and 29 days, right?”
“What you see is truly what you get. She has a heart for individuals. She is driven and a hard worker.”
On May 2, 2023, Mayor Randall L. Woodfin presented Kennedy with a proclamation during the city council meeting, recognizing all of her pageant wins from high school to now. Kennedy was honored, saying that if she never won a pageant, competing was still a win for her, especially if she inspired just one little girl sitting in the audience.
“I always tell people that if you are in pageants to win, you are in them for the wrong reasons because there are so many people’s lives that you can impact just by getting on that stage,” Kennedy said. “I will add that it feels good to be at Boutwell and to be back in the city where I grew up and be surrounded by the people and community I have had connections with through the years.”
Chanda Temple is an award-winning writer living in Birmingham, Ala. She blogs at http://www.chandatemplewrites.com. If you have a food story idea, email her at chandatemple@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram at @chandatemple.
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