MLT resident wins Mrs. Universe 2025 Ambition Award

Shifali Jamwal, an environmental advocate from Mountlake Terrace, received the Ambition Award during the 2025 Mrs. Universe Pageant in the Philippines — and she did it while staying true to her environmental values.

Jamwal won the Mrs. Universe America title during a pageant in Seattle in 2024.

Jamwal said that every outfit she wore during the eight-day Mrs. Universe pageant was  rented, borrowed or second hand. From her opening ensemble to her final appearance, her mission was to demonstrate that elegance and sustainability can go hand in hand.

“I wanted to show how even on an international scale and an industry like pageantry, we can keep sustainability as our guiding north star,” Shifali said.

During the costume presentation, Shifali delivered a visual narrative about Earth’s climate crisis. America is home to the world’s second-largest collection of glaciers — ice formations now disappearing at an alarming rate due to rising global temperatures. Using the pageant as her platform, Shifali said she sought to awaken awareness about environmental degradation. Her outfit conveyed this urgent message: a halo crafted as a glacier mountain represented nature’s majesty, while her dress of cascading icicles transformed into flowing water, symbolizing the sea level rise that increasingly threatens coastal populations worldwide.

In her presentation speech, Shifali highlighted her three-year leadership of the Live2Serve initiative, partnering with children at Mary’s Place, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to providing safe shelter, stability and hope for families experiencing homelessness. Mary’s Place operates multiple shelters across the Seattle area, offering not just temporary housing but comprehensive services including meals, case management, and supportive programs designed to help families transition back to stable housing.