By Roya Rafei, Rutgers University Office of Communications 

Jabili Kandula is not afraid to go after her dreams, even when those dreams defy expectations. 

She wants to be an aviation journalist. Check.  

She wants to be crowned a beauty pageant winner. Check. 

She wants to be a professional pilot and inspire other women to enter the aviation field. Working on it.  

Kandula, who graduated from Rutgers-New Brunswick in 2022, was crowned Miss New Jersey USA in June and will be representing the state in the Miss USA pageant Aug. 4 in Los Angeles.  

She is competing to be the first Miss USA from New Jersey. If she wins, she said she would also be the first Miss USA of Indian descent.

“There’s a stereotype that if you’re from this background, you can only be this one thing and I’m trying to show other Indian girls that you can be pilot, you can be a beauty queen, you can be a journalist,” Kandula said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, you can succeed.”  

Kandula is following in the footsteps of other Indian women. She started watching pageants a decade ago when in 2014 Nina Davaluri won Miss America, becoming the first Indian American woman to wear the crown. Then in 2017, Chhavi Verg was named Miss New Jersey USA, going on to becoming first runner up in that year’s Miss USA pageant. Miss America and Miss USA are separate pageants. Miss America started in Atlantic City in 1921 whereas Miss USA began in 1952 and is the qualifier to Miss Universe.

“I felt like I wanted to continue their legacies and give the same feeling of hope and inspiration to another girl as they did for me,” said Kandula, 24.

Kandula’s parents and sister are all in the medical field, but she became interested in aviation as a young teen after she picked up an illustrated book on Amelia Earhart. She loved that Earhart overcame challenges and resisted stereotypes. She could also relate to Earhart’s story of not fitting in. 

“Every day since I would read about her, and I even dressed up as her for a project in middle school,” she recalled. “One day I decided I wanted to be just like her and started this aviation journey.”

Kandula took her first flight at 18, and by 20, she had received her license to fly single-engine planes. She’s working on her instrument-rating and commercial pilot license, which is an advanced license allowing her to become a pilot for private carriers. Kandula, who was the first woman president of the Rutgers Aviation Club, has logged about 150 hours of the 1,500 hours of required airtime.

She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies from the School of Communication and Information and landed a job at the industry publication Aviation for Women.

She is using her connections in the industry and her Miss New Jersey USA title to promote careers in aviation for women by appearing at schools. In September, Kandula will participate in the 10^th anniversary of Girls in Aviation Day.

“I’m using my title to build a bigger audience to inspire girls to follow their dreams regardless of their background,” Kandula said. “I aim to be a leader that I wish I had growing up.” 

Roughly 5 percent of airline pilots are women and only 3.6 percent of airline captains are women, according to the 2022 Women in Aviation Advisory Board Report, released by the Federal Aviation Administration. The percentage for women of color who are pilots or captains is less than 1 percent, according to the same report.   

 “I haven’t been able to see myself represented through my community. I want to be able to do that for another girl so that she knows you can be multiple things and it doesn't matter what your background is,” Kandula said. “Representation is so important. I’m a first-generation American now, and we need to see ourselves represented in different aspects of society so that we know that we belong here.”  

Learn more about the Journalism and Media Studies major on the Rutgers School of Communication and Information website. 

This story was originally published on Rutgers Today on July 31, 2024. 

Photos: 

Top: Rutgers alumna Jabili Kandula (SC&I '22) is crowned Miss New Jersey USA during a ceremony held in June 2024. Courtesy of Jessie Palumbo

Middle: Rutgers alumna Jabili Kandula, who will be competing in Miss USA in August, is pursuing a career in aviation. Courtesy of Jayanth Yelleti

Bottom: Jabili Kandula, a 2022 Rutgers alumna, was named Miss New Jersey USA in June. She will be competing in the Miss USA pageant in Los Angeles in August. Courtesy of Jessie Palumbo