Sayreville Rutgers Sophomore Is Also Miss New Jersey International

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — This 19-year-old sophomore at Rutgers-New Brunswick was just crowned Miss New Jersey International in early March.

The young woman is Asmi Kaushal, who hails from Sayreville. Kaushal, who attends the Rutgers School of Engineering, will represent New Jersey when she competes for an international pageant title in Kingsport, Tennessee next month, on July 24 and July 25.

March was her first pageant and she was very surprised to win, she said. Kaushal said she entered the Miss New Jersey International pageant because she saw it as an opportunity to advocate for a cause she is passionate about: Helping American immigrant students get into college.

“This is a fabulous country and, just like they say, a country of opportunities. You get the best education here,” said Kaushal, who was born in India and moved to the United States with her parents at age 6.

The family settled in Sayreville and she is a Sayreville War Memorial High School graduate.

As the first in her family to attend college in America, she said: “A lot of students don't realize that there's so much more to do in education than just the academic portion. There are extracurriculars, there are volunteer opportunities, there are internships — and these students who don't have parents from this country don't really know how to navigate the competitive landscape of high school. So, I basically help those students out.”

Kaushal said she wants to help first-generation students and others negotiate the high school and college-admissions process.

She has provided free workshops at her high school and online on Advanced Placement-course selection, summer classes, volunteering opportunities and extracurricular activities. She also plans to develop a program that can assist high school students by pairing them with college students pursuing the same majors.

"There's a lot that you need to know when you are going into college applications, competing with students who've been living here forever, who have parents who studied here. Many students don't know how to make their college applications shine, what AP classes to take or which extracurriculars to pursue.”

Her goal is to help any student chart a higher education path and, hopefully, “get into their dream college.”

At Rutgers, Kaushal is majoring in mechanical engineering (possibly with an aerospace concentration) with a minor in mathematics.

“When I was in high school, I didn't even know that I wanted to do engineering,” said Kaushal, who initially considered studying law, but soon realized she should lean into her passions, physics and math.

“I was naturally good at it, so that drove me into engineering,” she said. “With everything being so robot-based and just tech-based, I think that's what's appealing to me the most.”

She commutes to Rutgers and she said its proximity to home, in-state tuition and the School of Engineering were the big draws.

"Earning merit-based scholarships and paying for tuition can be difficult in general,” she said. “So, one of the biggest things in my mind was I wanted to stay in state. Rutgers has been instrumental in my educational journey. I am proud to be a student at Rutgers.”

She is a member of Rutgers University Airborne, a student-run engineering club that develops, builds and flies fixed-wing, remote-controlled aircraft. Kaushal is a member of the aerostructures team, which designs internal components for the small flying machines. She is also a member of the Rutgers Society of Women Engineers. Kaushal also is a representative for the class of 2027 on the Engineering Governing Council.