Kristen Glover
2009 Arkansas Student Leadership Forum Alum
Pharmacist
Kristen Glover Belew attended Ouachita Baptist University and studied Chemistry with a minor in Biology. When it came to setting goals, scholastic achievement came fairly easy to Kristen. However, winning pageants didn’t come as easily. She competed in the 2008 Miss Arkansas pageant but barely missed the cut to the 2009 pageant. When she didn’t achieve her goal, she experienced a temporary identity crisis. She realized the need to grow in her true identity and volunteered for a difficult and life-changing summer as a mentor to pregnant teenagers.
She moved into the Promise House to share life with these girls for ten weeks. Although she felt unprepared for this position, she quickly realized that what these girls needed most was someone to listen and be a friend. Ironically, the biggest life lesson came during the week of Miss Arkansas. Kristen’s boss called her to the office to explain a crisis.
One of the girls in the house was sick with a STD. She was being treated and would recover soon, but someone needed to bleach all of the toilets and showers. Since pregnant girls can’t be exposed to chemicals, Kristen was the only one in the house capable of the job. It took a full week to complete the work. The same week that her friends were competing in Miss Arkansas, Kristen was scrubbing dozens of toilets.
Kristen attended ASLF during the fall of 2009 and shared her story from the Promise House for the first time. The forum’s focus on servant leadership resonated with Kristen’s own life lessons, and in the winter of 2010, she attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, when all students were snowed in for an epic, extended weekend. The next year Kristen graduated Magna cum Laude and won the title of Miss Arkansas 2011.
She spent a year touring the state of Arkansas, competing in Miss America, promoting the power of a mentor, and sharing her story to audiences such as the Arkansas Student Leadership Forum.
One month after passing on her crown, Kristen started Pharmacy School at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, and is scheduled to earn her Doctor of Pharmacy in May 2016. In August 2015, she married Barrett Belew, and they reside in Bryant. Kristen is President of the Former Miss Arkansas Association and serves on the ASLF Advisory Team and College of Pharmacy Women’s Giving Circle.