The Queen of Climate Justice

The pageant title helped Millan-Windorski launch an educational series on climate displacement and climate refugees. Carlos Velez

As a child, Beatrice Millan-Windorski ’24 traveled regularly from her hometown of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, to a small village in the Philippines to visit her grandmother. They liked to watch beauty pageants together, including the Miss Earth competition.

“Pageantry has a special place in Filipino and Filipino-American communities,” Millan-Windorski says. In southeast Asia, the competitions are considered a valid way for young women to launch careers in politics and other high-profile positions.

Millan-Windorski’s global understanding of the role of pageantry made her a serious contender in teen competitions in the Milwaukee area during her high school years. Her service platform focused on helping refugee families who’d resettled in Wisconsin after escaping political conflicts in Myanmar and Afghanistan, and this experience inspired Millan-Windorski to pursue a degree in international studies and history at the UW.

Her long-standing passion for refugees melded with a growing awareness of climate change during a class with Katherine Jensen, an assistant professor of sociology and international studies. “She taught us how, on an international scale, there’s no recognition or legal pathways toward asylum [for climate refugees],” Millan-Windorski says. “I aspire to one day work in the international affairs space to expand those legal definitions to include those specifically affected by climate change.”

Millan-Windorski realized that pageantry, and specifically Miss Earth, could offer a path toward this dream, because the competition is dedicated to environmental advocacy and provides its winners with resources to help enact positive change. It’s also the only pageant formally recognized by the United Nations, and Miss Earth winners are typically invited to address the UN General Assembly.

Balancing her honors thesis and other schoolwork with pageant prep made for a busy senior year, but the effort paid off on New Year’s Eve in Orlando, Florida, when Millan-Windorski became the first Wisconsinite and first Filipina-American to be crowned Miss Earth USA. Almost immediately, the title helped her launch an educational series on climate displacement and climate refugees in collaboration with the Climate Justice Collaborative and We Are All America, a nonprofit dedicated to welcoming and protecting refugees and immigrants.

In November, Millan-Windorski will travel to Vietnam to compete for the 2024 world title — all while studying for the LSAT in order to apply to law schools. “It can be so hard to know where to begin, especially with huge issues like climate change and refugee rights,” she says. “The fact that I was able to win this title and gain access to all these resources is what really makes pageantry special and still relevant in today’s world.”

Published in the Winter 2024 issue