Meet Jalondra Davis, MS '02

Published 07/25/2017 in Alumni Features

Written 07/25/2017

When it comes to the precision of a pose and the art of prose, few young people are as talented as 2002 Milken Scholar, Jalondra Davis.

A Westchester high school alum, she graduated magna cum laude from Loyola Marymount University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in English, and went on to earn a master’s degree in professional writing this summer from the University of Southern California.

This Sigma Tau Delta international English honor society member has done more than compile an impressive record of academic accomplishments.

She has been published in compendiums such as Leimert Park Poets Anthology, and is currently at work on her first novel. She has trained and worked at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, a Los Angeles cultural institution, and currently performs as a principal with the Precision Dance Company.

 While at Loyola Marymount, she chaired several important African-American cultural events on campus, and earned the Shirley Chisholm Emerging Leader Award.

 In addition, she holds the title of Miss Black California 2009, and will compete in the Miss Black USA pageant in Las Vegas next summer, where she hopes to win  scholarship funds toward a Ph.D. in English with a Creative Dissertation.

 Throughout, Jalondra has remained actively involved in her community, and this involvement forms the basis of her platform, which “recognizes the importance of  arts education to the development of the whole person and the role of arts as empowerment for youth trapped by the cycles of poverty, ignorance, and violence.”

 Jalondra is driven to positively affect the lives of others through her words, her performances, and one day in the classroom, as a professor of literature and  writing. These are no small tasks, but for someone who so truly understands the power of inspiration, life goes hand-in-hand with passing it along.