Once too shy to order her own food at a restaurant, Naphtali Henry now performs with the cheer team in front of hundreds of people and is finding her voice through new experiences. The senior’s growing confidence is matched by a passion for helping others, especially animals in need. Tyro Times spoke with Henry about finding her confidence, her future in the medical field, and the cause she hopes to champion through Miss Cardinal.

Rochelle Schmidt: What made you decide to run for Miss Cardinal?

Naphtali Henry: I thought it was a cool opportunity because I don’t think I’ll ever do a pageant again in my life. It was cool to be able to have this experience that not a lot of other schools have, and especially just being a senior, I wanted to take as many opportunities as I could.

RS: What have you learned from the Miss Cardinal experience?

NH: I’ve learned how to speak better to people and how to be more outgoing and not be so shy. The pageant teaches you how to incorporate your own personality into things, so it’s taught me how to be more in touch with myself. It’s helped me be able to make new friends and learn about myself along with everything else.

RS: What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?

NH: I think people would be surprised that I’m athletic. I feel like I carry myself in a way that I just try to be presentable, try to do my work, try to be chill. But I am actually really competitive. I like to be very active and be involved in a lot of things too.

RS: How has cheer helped you become more confident?

NH: I remember when I first joined, I was super nervous to even be in front of anybody to do presentations for class, and I wouldn’t even want to order my food at restaurants because I’d get so anxious to talk to the person. It was right after COVID and everything. When I started cheer, the coach was like, “Okay, we’re going to do a performance. There’s going to be like 200, 300 people.” I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m dancing in front of people.” I feel like dancing in front of people really brought up my confidence a lot because it showed me that you could be confident.

RS: Tell us about the canine handling program you participated in.

NH: I was one of the people picked to be in the program, and we would meet every Tuesday. We learned how to take care of canines, how to train them, things about their health, how to feed them correctly and what to do if they get hurt. They were also hands-on experiences. I learned how to give a dog CPR and how to fill a wound if they’re bleeding. It also teaches you how to be patient and how to handle pressure. I got my certificate from La Sierra University.

RS: What made you want to participate in the canine program?

NH: I have a really big heart for animals, especially dogs. I’ve always been a dog person my entire life, so being able to learn how to take care of a dog and, if they’re in any need of help, be able to be of use to them was really cool to me. I have dogs myself, and if I ever was in a position where a dog needed me to take care of them, I would have those skills and knowledge. It was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up.

RS: What do you hope to do after high school?

NH: I want to major in radiologic technology so I can be an X-ray tech. I feel like being in the medical field is definitely a sustainable job, and it’s a job that’s always going to be a service. I’m more of a hands-on kind of person, so you can do a lot of hands-on work, and being in the medical field, you also feel good that you’re helping someone else. It gives you a sense of purpose that you’re doing good for somebody in some way or form.

RS: What is a challenge you’ve faced that helped you grow or see yourself differently?

NH: I think just having confidence in myself. When I was really shy, I let people walk over me, and I wasn’t really secure in who I was as a person. I took what people said about me very heavily. Building that confidence in myself, I’m stable in who I am. I know my morals. I know what I like and what I don’t like. I’m able to share that with other people and have a voice in a room where I used to not have a voice. That was really hard for me to learn, but it was really important for me to learn. Now that I have it, I feel like I am completely a different person in a lot of ways.

RS: What do you hope people who meet you through Miss Cardinal will remember about you?

NH: I want them to remember that I have a passion for animals. One thing I noticed is that we don’t really do anything for the animals here. We have so many homeless dogs and cats, especially dogs. I always see dogs running and roaming around the school, so that really caught my attention coming here.

What I wanted to do from joining this was bring attention to the animals in the community that are homeless and need help too. The world’s not going to survive if we don’t take care of the animals and things that were here before we were. We need each other. The animals need us, and we need them.

I want people to remember that I really try to keep going on with that legacy. I was talking to Jamie at the homeless shelter, and I told him that we should have a booth where people could bring food, toys and other things to give to the animal shelters. We’re going to start working on that to bring some recognition to them in San Bernardino.