Africa Trip Winner Profile: Steven Thai

May 11th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

You may already know Steven Thai, a rising junior at Luther College in Iowa, an outstanding Campus Outreach Ambassador (COA), and one of five winners of our first-ever ONE Campus Challenge trip to Africa this summer.

If you go to school in Iowa or Minnesota, then you probably know Steven as your COA. He has successfully recruited dozens of campuses to the ONE Campus Challenge in the last year. On his own campus, he has established an OCC membership of 255 — nearly 10% of the Luther’s population. And you might have run into Steven at campaign rallies and town hall meetings during the 2008 election, where he and ONE-Luther reached out to candidates including then-Senator Obama, Senators McCain and Harkin, and Congressman Latham.

Originally from Coon Rapids, Minnesota — a northern suburb of the Twin Cities — Steven is now about halfway through his B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Communication Studies at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has been a ONE Member since 2005, when his mother’s godparents “banded” him with a white ONE wristband. Steven checked out the ONE website and got hooked on the organization and its causes. Eventually, he hopes to pursue a career first on Capitol Hill, and later in advocacy for ONE or a ONE partner organization.

Steven also established his congregation as a ONE Congregation, and works closely with ONE’s partner organization, Bread for the World.

To win one of five spots on the OCC Africa trip, Steven submitted a project in the form of a video. Learn more about Steven and his ideals and aspirations, in his own words: