- Home
- Premium Memberships
- Lottery Results
- Forums
- Predictions
- Lottery Post Videos
- News
- Search Drawings
- Search Lottery Post
- Lottery Systems
- Lottery Charts
- Lottery Wheels
- Worldwide Jackpots
- Quick Picks
- On This Day in History
- Blogs
- Online Games
- Premium Features
- Contact Us
- Whitelist Lottery Post
- Rules
- Lottery Book Store
- Lottery Post Gift Shop
The time is now 12:40 pm
You last visited
June 4, 2024, 11:53 am
All times shown are
Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)
When will it stop?
Published:
Miss America crowns 1st winner of Indian descent
By CNN Staff
updated 3:57 PM EDT, Mon September 16, 2013
(CNN) -- She's the second consecutive New York beauty queen to take the Miss America title, but she's the first Indian-American to wear the national crown -- er, tiara -- atop her perfectly coiffed head.
"I was the first Indian Miss New York, and I'm so proud to be the first Indian Miss America," Nina Davuluri said after she won.
Davuluri's resume goes considerably deeper than her heritage, however.
The 24-year-old Fayetteville, New York, native was on the dean's list and earned the Michigan Merit Award and National Honor Society nods while studying at the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a degree in brain behavior and cognitive science
Miss America: Butt glue, 'Breaking Bad' jokes and more highlights
Her father, who emigrated from India 30 years ago, is a gynecologist, and Davuluri said she'd like to become a physician one day as well.
"During her year as Miss America she will serve as spokesperson for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) this year as she travels to Washington, D.C., to work with the Department of Education," according to a Miss America statement.
She also is passionate about healthy lifestyles after battling obesity and bulimia when she was younger.
Davuluri's platform was "Celebrating Diversity Through Cultural Competency." For the talent portion of the competition, she performed classic Indian dances fused with Bollywood moves.
She has studied the Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam styles of dance, and in preparation for the Miss America contest, she worked with famed Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan.
Miss California Crystal Lee was first runner-up, and Miss Oklahoma Kelsey Griswold was second runner-up, while Theresa Vail, the tattooed, bow-hunting, Chinese-speaking Miss Kansas, won the online viewers' poll.
Despite a night of firsts, a tired theme emerged following Davuluri's victory: Racists took to Twitter to lambaste the pageant for picking an Indian-American. They were none too kind to Davuluri herself, either, with one particularly uninformed tweeter calling her a Muslim.
Something similar happened when Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA in 2010. Fakih is of Lebanese descent, and many were quick to try to link her to the militant group Hezbollah.
Comments
Post a Comment
Please Log In
To use this feature you must be logged into your Lottery Post account.
Not a member yet?
If you don't yet have a Lottery Post account, it's simple and free to create one! Just tap the Register button and after a quick process you'll be part of our lottery community.
Register