14 DAY TRIAL // Miss America 2014 is 24-year-old Nina Davuluri, Miss New York. The stunning beauty queen has won the much coveted tiara in a ceremony held just hours ago, and is the first of Indian heritage to ever do so.
Talk about a double win and setting an admirable precedent.
Below is an excerpt of the Miss America 2014 pageant with the exact moment when Davuluri’s name was called out as the winner.
As with every edition, Nina takes home a considerable prize (a scholarship), but also the responsibility of traveling the country to raise awareness on a series of important issues.
The Huffington Post notes that it was surprising that she won considering her misstep during the talent portion of the show, when she didn’t realize her name was being called out.
“Davuluri distractedly applauded for herself when her name was called. ‘Next up for talent is Miss New York,’ host Lara Spencer announced. Davuluri continued applauding, so another contestant hopped up and ran forward instead,” the e-zine reports.
Nina didn’t realize it was her time to get up on stage until Spencer called out her name again. She eventually performed a Bollywood routine that, it would seem, won over the jury.
Nina was born in Syracuse and raised in Oklahoma and Michigan. She’s now living in Fayetteville and she plans on becoming a physician, no doubt inspired by her father’s example: he is an obstetrician / gynecologist with St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Though she’s dedicated a lot of time to beauty pageants, Nina is what you might call the complete package, because she has beauty and brains in equal measure.
She’s won several Scholastic Honors already, such as the Michigan Merit Award and National Honor Society Award. Nina is a graduate in Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science.
