AT 17 years old, Clan Carthy High School student Romain Kenton is a pageant judge.

Kenton, who describes himself as industrious, goal-oriented, passionate, and driven says his involvement in pageantry as an extra-curricular activity started about three years ago when he represented his school in the Immaculate Modelling Agency’s Mr and Miss Jamaica High School Competition. He didn’t win, but the experience held bigger things for the Kingston native.

“At the end of the day, I was not the winner and I was wondering how I did not win. I asked the director of the programme, Paul Abrahams, to break down the competition to me, and he did. A few months after, he called me to do a prejudging for the same competition. I underwent a week of training in grooming, modelling, question and answer, interpretation and a lot more by the chief judge Mr Mark Munroe,” Kenton explained.

To date, he has judged countless inter-school pageants. A few schools, including Immaculate Conception, Eltham, and Cumberland high schools, as well as Caribbean Maritime Institute, have requested him at their in-house competitions.

In addition to judging pageants, Kenton is a governor general’s I Believe Initiative ambassador and is actively engaged in charity work through Operation Help the People and other groups. At school, he is a students’ council representative, vice-president of the Interact Club, and president of the Debate Club. Last year, he was head boy.

He counts the latter one of the most defining experiences of his life, as he got the opportunity to positively impact the lives of those with whom he came in contact.

“When I was head boy, my main goal was to motivate the student population. I had regular talks with students on the compound. However, I had a form class and I perceived that they did not like me, but one day I sat down with them and spoke about life, respect, discipline and more. I realised that they just needed someone to talk with and from then I think I earned their respect. Because of this quality, I think that students were not afraid to come to me because I was a very responsive leader,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

When it comes to judging, he says he holds himself accountable to make fair judgements.

“Your credibility and integrity as a judge are very important. As a judge, when you are finished, you are supposed to feel at peace,” he said.

As a result, he said, one cannot allow one’s biases or prejudices to determine one’s decision. “You simply judge what the contestants present to you.”

Kenton maintains that pageants do serve a purpose, saying that claims that they are irrelevant are flawed.

“When some individuals enter these pageants, it’s not just about winning. It’s a life changing experience for them. You are talking about individuals who [may be] shy, lacking confidence in themselves, having low self-esteem and being antisocial. But because of the many sessions contestants go through while in these competitions, like grooming and poise workshops, public speaking, motivation sessions and the many volunteer services they do, it leads them to have confidence in themselves, boosts self-esteem. It teaches them the power of volunteering and last, but not least, the friendships they establish.

“It (pageant) develops powerful leaders,” he postulated, using beauty queens Lisa Hanna, Terrie Karelle-Reid and Yendi Phillips as examples.

The teen, who names US President Barack Obama as his role model, hopes to find a career in either education or governance.

“I want to become an educator because I am passionate about sharing my knowledge with others and a lot of teachers have made an impact on my life and I would want to impact others too. I would also want to be a director of public prosecutions because I want to see that justice is served to people who commit heinous crimes,” he told the Career & Education.

Kenton also hopes to advance into the world of professional pageant judging. He has his sights set on Miss Jamaica Festival Queen this year.

“One message I would like to put to the youths of Jamaica is don’t predict the future, create it,” he said.