Fil-Am human rights activist crowned Miss Earth USA

Beatrice “Bea” Millan-Windorski, a Filipino American university student who describes herself as a human rights activist, was crowned Miss Earth USA 2024 at the national pageant finals held at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida. Photo from Carl Andrada

LOS ANGELES – Beatrice “Bea” Millan-Windorski, a Filipino American university student who describes herself as a human rights activist, was crowned Miss Earth USA 2024 at the national pageant finals held at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida on Sunday.

Millan-Windorski, representing Wisconsin, became the first Fil-Am to hold the title.

Beatrice Millan-Windorski holds the distinction of becoming the first Fil-Am to hold the Miss Earth USA title. Photo from Carl Andrada

She is from Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee County in Wisconsin. Her maternal grandmother Marcela Buenavista

Millan lives in San Juan, San Fernando in La Union.

She went to Whitefish Bay High School in Whitefish Bay. She became interested in environmental advocacy as a young girl while visiting her family in the Philippines.

Millan-Windorski is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a double major in International Relations and History. She is set to graduate with honors in May this year.

“Education is incredibly important to me,” she said in a Miss Earth USA video. “My lola or grandmother was the first in her village to attend university.”

Millan-Windorski said everyone in her grandmother’s hometown thought her family was making a mistake by selling their farmland to support her education, she added.

Her grandmother earned a nursing degree and migrated to the United States.

“She made sure to emphasize to me from my young age that an education is never wasted on a woman,” she said.

Millan-Windorski wore a Carl Andrada-designed crystal embellished green gown with silk chiffon cape, symbolizing her advocacy for a green earth. Image: missearthusa/IG

The Fil-Am beauty queen has completed a fellowship with the Philippine Embassy and an internship at the East-West Center in Washington DC.

The Fil-Am beauty queen, shown here modeling a modern Filipiniana dress created by Carl Andrada, takes pride in her Filipino heritage and has deep appreciation for Filipino culture. Photo from Carl Andrada

She has conducted research on the US-ASEAN relations, translated articles from Tagalog to English and wrote articles about local connections between the US and communities across Southeast Asia.

She often visited the Philippines and volunteered for Project CURMA or Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions in San Juan, La Union.

Project CURMA is a sea turtle conservation program that educates volunteers on avoiding plastic garbage, cleaning up coastlines and saving turtle nests from poachers.

She has described her involvement with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) as “the advocacy closest to my heart.”

IRAP helps ensure that people fleeing from climate-related disaster have a legal path to asylum and safety.

She was crowned Miss Wisconsin Earth in May 2023. Last Sunday, she competed against 52 other candidates at the Rosen Centre in Orlando. She  will represent the US at Miss Earth 2024 in Vietnam.

Los Angeles-based designer Carl Andrada, who created the Fil-Am beauty queen’s gowns for the preliminary competition and the pageant finals said Millan-Windorski takes pride in her Filipino heritage and has deep appreciation for Filipino culture.

She wore an Andrada-designed crystal embellished green gown with silk chiffon cape, symbolizing her advocacy for a green earth.