Danielle Jones

Danielle Jones – Texas
Nomination & Photography by Angie Read Photography
Issue 70 of Inspiring Teens Magazine

Nomination: Danielle Jones is loyal, kind, and hardworking! She gives her all to everything! She has danced since she was 4 years old and has been on a competition dance team since 5th grade. In high school, she made the cheer team all 4 years, and for her senior year, she has a varsity team leadership position as Spirit Leader. Through the National Honor Society and Junior Guild (also serving as the Historian), she actively serves her community. And finally, she works at a milkshake bar called Chill. She spends free time watching shows, reading, or hanging out with friends. She is an inspiration!

Photography by Angie Read Photography

​Tell us about your dance career and what you love most about it.
I have been dancing since I was 4 years old and have been a part of the competitive dance team since 5th grade. Since I spend a lot of my time at the dance studio, what I love most about it is the friendships I have made throughout the years. Many of us have danced together our whole dance career.

What dances do you study? Which is your favorite and why?
I study a lot of different styles of dance. The classes I take throughout the week are ballet, tap, jazz, and contemporary. In addition to competing dances in these genres, we have additional dances in hip hop, lyrical, and musical theater. My favorite style of dance is contemporary because when you're able to flow and connect with music it has the best feeling to it.

What has been your favorite dance competition?
My favorite dance competition would be the nationals my studio goes to. It’s a convention called LA Dance Magic and it takes place in California. It’s fun being able to travel with your team and all hangout together in another state. This past dance season we had 6 group dances, and I also had 2 solos.

What do you love best about being on the cheer team?
What I love most about being on the cheer team is going to games and being able to cheer for our school. I love football games the most, especially our homecoming game, because having school spirit is always so fun.

What is a favorite memory with your cheer team?
My favorite memory with my cheer team is going to camp. Every year we go to Dallas for our cheer camp. It really bonds our team together for the upcoming year, and I have so much fun with my teammates. This past year was also great as I competed for and made All-American at my UCA Cheer Camp!

​How did you find your photographer, Angie Read Photography? What was your experience like? What did you love most about it?
I found my photographer Angie through my sister. My sister graduated high school in 2022 and was a part of Angie's Power Team, and also was part of Inspiring Teens. Ever since then I knew I wanted to have Angie as my senior photographer!

Photography by Angie Read Photography

​How would you describe your leadership style?
I would say my leadership style is being an encourager. I love being able to help my teammates whenever someone needs a friend to listen, or needs clarification on something. I also love being creative and doing fun things for the team, like making signs for athletic events, or team building activities for my team.

What is your strongest leadership skill?
I think my strongest leadership skill is being able to go with the flow. I have a laid back personality and when things don’t go the right way I don’t stress out and I make new decisions quickly.

What is your role as spirit Leader?
My role as spirit leader is to help keep up school spirit. We do things like making spirit gifts, coming up with fun spirit themes for game day, and team bonding. My role involves a lot of creativity and spirit.

What has been your favorite service project in the NHS?
My favorite service project for the NHS so far has been helping out at the Ironman. I was able to volunteer with one of my friends for 4 hours and we both had so much fun cheering competitors and passing out water and food to them. It was so inspiring to watch the athletes!

What is Junior Guild and what do you do in it?
Junior Guild is a mother-daughter program that is focused on community service. We volunteer with a number of philanthropies in our community and do projects along with some other fun events, like our annual Senior Fashion Show, where we get to model and walk the runway to raise money for charities we work with.

What do you love about being the Historian?
One of the things I do as Historian for Junior Guild is the yearbook. I love how throughout the year I collect photos and get to make a yearbook of all the memories made. I get to see how much impact all the members have on our community.

How else are you active in your community?
I find out about a lot of community opportunities through Junior Guild and National Honor Society. One of my favorites was helping take care of the cats up for adoption, but I’ve also really enjoyed other non-profit community activities, like working at a dog shelter, helping kids at art camp, and ushering in fine arts performances.

Photography by Brianna Jones

​What have you learned about the general public working at Chill?
Chill is a really popular milkshake and waffle bar. Some things I’ve learned about the general public working at Chill is customer service. I learned how important it is to have satisfied customers and that communication is key when talking to customers. Chill does a great job at that as they were voted the #1 best milkshake in Texas by USA Today, and the #6 best milkshakes in the country by Travel & Leisure Magazine!

What inspiring things about you does your nomination not cover?
Something inspiring about me is that for everything I do, I put my one hundred percent effort into it! Anyone who knows me can say I am one of the hardest workers they know. I juggle a lot between dance, cheer, work, school, and service, but it has taught me the importance of working hard with each thing I do.

What else would you like to talk about?
One thing I would like to talk about is living life to your fullest potential. Even though life can get stressful and scary sometimes eventually later on in life you'll see yourself on the better side of it. Just live for the good and fun moments in life!

Photography by Brianna Jones

​What do you feel passionate about or could talk about forever?
Something I feel passionate about is dance, as I have been doing it since the age of four. It has become a big part of my life and has shaped me into the person I am now. I have done every style of dance and continue to learn more about it every day! As I am looking into colleges I am looking into dance teams and hope I will be able to continue dancing!

If you had nothing to do and all day to do it, where would we find you?
Since I am involved in a lot of activities, whenever I actually get free moments I like to relax and watch tv. If I had nothing to do all day you would probably find me at my house in bed or on a couch, as I never seem to have the time to do that these days.

What is up next for you that you are super excited about?
Up next for me is thinking about college and what I want to major in. I just went on my first college tour and college applications are just opening up. I’m super excited to be able to start making big decisions for what I have up next in my life.

Look for Danielle in issue 70 of Inspiring Teens Magazine!

click here for more information on issue 70

click here to nominate an inspiring teen