Svetlana Mamaeva

Schulich alumna, Svetlana Mamaeva (BBA ’18) was recently crowned Miss World Canada 2020 and will be Canada’s official representative at Miss World 2021, the beauty pageant that represents over 100 countries and attracts nearly one billion viewers.

Outside of competing in pageants, Svetlana works full-time in the business technology sector and places great importance on her education. After graduating from Schulich with an honours degree in Finance, she also completed a graduate certificate program in Business Communications at Harvard Extension School.

Juggling multiple responsibilities with her busy schedule, Svetlana revealed that a lot of preparation went in over the years before she won the title. She actively worked on her charitable initiatives, educated herself on global issues and received training in fitness, runway presentation and public speaking.

“Being Miss World Canada is more about working towards making a positive impact in your country than anything else,” shared Mamaeva, who has raised over $8,000 for various charities in the last three years. “I am very honoured and excited to be representing Canada next year at Miss World. It will also be the 70th anniversary of the pageant!”

For a big part of the competition, contestants focused on launching their charitable initiatives, known as their “Beauty with a Purpose” project. Mamaeva discussed the free financial literacy program she created during the pandemic, called FinPowered. She used the knowledge from completing her Schulich degree, along with her personal banking experience where she received the Top 10% in Canada award, to help Canadians become financially empowered.

To date, Svetlana has run seven workshops at various local shelters and is aiming to scale her program nationally. To learn more about her initiatives or to request a free financial literacy workshop, you can connect with Svetlana here. To follow her journey for the competition, you can follow Miss World Canada’s official Instagram and Facebook pages.