After growing up participating in pageants and competing on dance teams, 2025 Miss UCA Tori Kiser was prepared to take the stage and advocate for her social impact initiative. As she prepared to represent the campus at the Miss Arkansas Scholarship Competition in June, Kiser reflected on her beginnings in competitions, her platform and her time as a part of UCA’s dynamic community.
A Cabot native, Kiser recalled growing up in the Miss Arkansas system because her mother had also competed. As time progressed, she understood it was much more than following her mother’s path.
“I would do pageants here and there because my mom competed in the Miss Arkansas system, and then I was a Diamond. Then I started competing in the teen program, and I really saw how the experience was able to grow these women into who they really wanted to be, to be able to go in front of an interview panel and not only get scholarship funding but grow as an individual. Watching that firsthand and seeing it at such a young age encouraged me to stick to it,” Kiser said.
Crowned Miss UCA 2025 on November 17, 2024, she saw a dream come true and opportunities for the future. “Whenever I decided to attend UCA, I knew winning Miss UCA was a goal. It has offered me growth and a great support system, not just the Miss UCA Board, but UCA as a whole.”
Injuries and treatment throughout her formative years as an athlete on dance teams prepared her for her career path and social impact initiative, “Mindful Recovery: Supporting Athletes’ Mental Health.” A biology major with a pre-medical concentration, Kiser’s goal is to attend UAMS and become an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine. “I’ve always dreamed of becoming an orthopedic surgeon from about middle school or junior high, and then whenever I had my ACL tear freshman year, I felt like that was the ultimate factor leading me to that.”
That injury occurring during a practice session before the first football game solidified her resolve to heal and help others heal, and her social impact initiative was realized in full.
“I tore my ACL a few days before the very first football game, and I’m on the dance team, so that was soul-crushing. I didn’t realize how much an injury, and I’ve had several, could take a toll on one’s mental health. I always just thought, ‘Oh, it’s just physical,’ but there’s more to it. Not being able to do the thing you love most and not even being able to walk definitely shows how everything can be taken away in a second. And after working with athletic trainers and meeting other injured athletes, I started to form connections, and I quickly realized how much of an impact mental health makes,” she stated.
Her initiative aims to educate athletic trainers and student-athletes about signs of mental distress after an injury and during the healing process, to look at the whole person, not just the injury, and to make connections. Training those in the profession to look for those signs can assist athletes in healing mentally and physically. To her, it is all about connections.
As Miss UCA 2025, Kiser’s goal for her time on campus is to connect with the campus community as much as possible. “I feel like being Miss UCA gives me a whole new opportunity to connect with other students and hear about what they love about the community, just building those connections because I feel like connections are one of the most important things here at UCA.”
She continued, “I want to be the Miss UCA who makes everyone feel heard and seen. I want everyone to know that they have a purpose here on campus and that they are truly making an impact. That’s part of the reason why I love UCA so much.”