UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — One piece of advice that Penn State alum Jaelyn Monroe received from her mother growing up was that “it is better to give than to receive.” It was also a statement that resonated with her, she said, after learning she had received a $25,000 “Pink with Purpose” Project Grant from Victoria’s Secret last August.

Monroe, who graduated from Penn State this past May with a degree in political science, used the grant to advance the mission of the Miss Monroe Foundation, which she founded during her senior year in high school. Monroe planned various events and fundraisers that supported mentorship and resources for young women, aid for homeless people in Philadelphia, and restorative justice work within juvenile facilities.

“It is an indescribable feeling to be able to give back to so many different organizations and causes that are meaningful to me,” Monroe said. “My mother instilled this advice in me since I was a little girl. She was always the person who was willing to dedicate her time to help other people, which I admire.”

One event that held great importance to the Philadelphia native, she said, was a food and personal-hygiene drive she organized last Thanksgiving in Kensington and Allegheny. The event provided hot meals, feminine-hygiene packs and haircuts to people experiencing homelessness in these areas.

Monroe also used money from the grant to plan the Philadelphia Kids Pageant, one of her most significant events of the year, she said. The pageant aims to raise awareness about and advance multiculturalism for young girls in pageantry. Each contestant gained pageantry experience and went through a six-week mentorship program where they explored their own community-service initiatives, Monroe said.

Although she could not participate in pageants when she was younger due to financial constraints, Monroe has become more involved in the pageant world since then. She was named the 2023 Miss Midstate Pennsylvania and competed for Miss Pennsylvania earlier this summer. Although she did not win that title, she won the YCEA Women in Business Award during the Miss Central Pennsylvania Competition.

“The hardest part of being a title holder is figuring out how to brand yourself and platform so that people want to book you for appearances,” Monroe said. “For the next competitions, everything is about what you have done while you have had your title. My platform advocates for youth going through the juvenile justice system.”

At Penn State, Monroe felt supported by those in the community who invited her to speak about the initiatives she was involved in, which allowed her to gain more experience.

Monroe credits her paternal grandmother for being someone she could look up to and take inspiration from when it came to going to college and being an entrepreneur. Monroe was first person in her family to attend college and start her own business, and her grandmother instilled in her that, as a woman of color, Monroe would have to work three times as hard as the next person.

To say she took this advice lightly would be an understatement: During her time as an undergraduate student, Monroe was involved in a multitude of organizations on campus and in her own community. The organization that impacted her the most, she said, was the Multicultural Undergraduate Law Association (MULA). She joined seeking a community with similar interests and goals — and became president for a year.

“One of the previous presidents worked so hard to create a welcoming community within MULA,” she said. “He had a way of bringing people in who were not pre-law or in that community and making them feel like they were a part of it. It was genuinely an organization where everybody could have fun, while remembering it also is a professional development organization.”

Though she graduated from Penn State last May, Monroe will return to Penn State this fall to pursue her master’s degree in business administration and study for the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). And while she does plan to attend law school and practice law for a while, she said eventually she hopes to run for public office as well.

“My goal for my career is to make it so people of color do not have to work three times as hard. They still should work hard, but I want to make it more of an equitable future for everybody,” Monroe said. “I want to ensure that my role, as a lawyer, gives more representation to minorities, specifically within corporate law, since there is little representation.”