Rogers High School’s own, Cierra Judd, is a 15 year-old junior who has been fighting for her life against a brain tumor for two years now. However, she doesn’t let the unfortunate circumstances of her life define her, but considers herself stronger because of it.

Over the course of those two years, Judd has been through multiple treatments of chemotherapy, along with surgeries. Her family, surgeons, and herself have high hopes that the chemo will be able to shrink the size of her tumor. The surgeries are to place tubes within her torso in order to drain liquid from her head, causing less inflation. Judd explained that her brain tumor couldn’t be removed due to the fact that surgeons say it would cause nerves to shut down and potentially profound memory loss. Just to be safe, she constructed the solution of taking pictures for a journal that she keeps with little descriptions about the photos taken and their meaning.

She’s come up with clever coping mechanisms to adjust to her situation, and to keep herself busy. If she isn’t working on completing schoolwork, she’s caught up in the kitchen.

“I try to cook for my family as often as I can, I know they work so hard and just want them to be able to relax when they get home,” Judd explained.

Judd has managed to focus on keeping the people around her laughing by always entering a room with a smile and cracking as many jokes as she can. When Judd was asked to elaborate on what her inspiration was, and just how she maintains the positivity level that she does; she responded that Ellen is a big reason she continues to spread joy.

“Ellen is the reason I do ‘Give Back Fridays’; last Friday my dad and I paid for the five Starbucks orders for the cars behind us, it just feels so good,” Judd tells.

She has received the opportunity to go on Ellen in December are the holidays, as well as close to her birthday, Dec. 28, to meet Ellen and hopefully get to tell her story and inspire others. Even though Judd has gone through some frightening moments, she constantly tries to make the best of every situation.

For instance, in February of this year, she collapsed in front of school. She was transported to the hospital immediately, resulting in another stepping-stone on her uphill battle that she has over come. Post collapse, she made the transition into home schooling for a few months, until her body regained the strength to return to public school, even in a wheel chair.

Her biggest obstacle was when she moved to Washington from Hawaii for better medical opportunities from neurosurgeons. She went into several surgeries, including one that resulted in being paralyzed on her left side for some time. By far one of Judd’s scariest moments, she said it happened when a surgeon accidently hit her brain during the procedure. As she confided in her family, sooner than later feeling in her left side came back and she was able to do what she missed most again, walk. Over all, Judd wants to leave her legacy as a positive person who cared more about her impact on others than the medical impacts on her.