Crown of diamonds, heart of gold
Rice’s Alex Tran wins pageant, serves community

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Anxiety pulsed through her as Will Rice College senior Alex Tran walked the stage of the Miss Vietnam Global 2009 Pageant earlier this month. A top 10 finalist two years before, Tran hoped for a better outcome this time around and put her Rice education into action.

	COURTESY PHOTO
	Rice student Alex Tran was crowned Miss Vietnam Global 2009 for her intelligence, beauty and warm heart.

“My academic and community service experience at Rice has taught me first and foremost to never settle and never be afraid of failure,” Tran said.

Failure she needn’t fear. The 5-foot-4-inch 22-year-old Rice student was crowned the winner for her intelligence, beauty and warm heart.

“It still feels absolutely surreal,” she said. “It’s been a very emotional experience, but I had a wonderful pageant week getting to know the 29 other contestants through rehearsals, photo shoots, video tapings and social activities.”

As Miss Vietnam Global, Tran will travel and reach out to the numerous Vietnamese communities scattered throughout the world to provide opportunities for cultural exchange and see their community developments. She is especially excited about learning how each community is keeping Vietnamese culture alive.

Before she sets out on that mission, she has another — also international — journey to complete: her Loewenstern Fellowship. Established by a gift from alumnus Walter Loewenstern ’58, the fellowships provide stipends for students to volunteer abroad through direct service, mentorship or civic research and design placements. Direct service ranges from getting involved with community-building construction work and domestic violence intervention programs to implementing grassroots educational campaigns and serving meals to the homeless.

Mentorship placements are modeled after a Leadership Rice program in which a student partners with a mentor who is an effective, ethical leader within a service-oriented organization. Students in the civic research and design track of the fellowships conduct faculty-supervised, community-based research or design projects that will benefit the communities they serve.

The process of becoming a Loewenstern Fellow is highly selective. Students must demonstrate they have the desire to serve, the capacity to learn from the culture of their host country and the enthusiasm to share the experience with others in the Rice community.

“Alex not only met these qualifications, but she also has the personality and demeanor to develop easily the close, personal relationships that are so important to these experiences,” said Mac Griswold, director of the Community Involvement Center (CIC). “She will certainly represent Rice University well as both a Loewenstern Fellow and Miss Vietnam Global.”

COURTESY PHOTO
Alex Tran, bottom center, and a group of Rice students spend a two-week trip helping the indigenous people of San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, as part of the International Service Project.

Tran will spend five weeks in New Delhi participating in the Public Health and Community Medicine Program at Child Family Health International. The premed will have a chance to work with Indian medical doctors and professors to learn about medical care in rural settings.

“I hope to also have the opportunity to learn about the people there,” Tran said. “I believe the living conditions are similar to that in my home country of Vietnam, so I hope I can learn skills in India that I can later practice in Vietnam.”

Born in Nha Trang, Tran settled in the U.S. with her parents and a younger brother when she was 2 years old. She grew up in Texas, and by the time she was in high school, she was involved in clubs and organizations in the school and community. She excelled in the classroom too. After a brief stint at New York University, Tran chose to relocate to Rice University.

“I wanted a smaller, close-knit atmosphere,” Tran said. “And that’s what I got. When I think of Rice, I will always remember kind peers helping one another, the beautiful campus and the pride I feel as a Rice Owl walking along the inner loop.”

Tran credits the atmosphere at Rice for her success in serving others. She has been involved in the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and its CIC from the get-go. Before she even set foot in the Sallyport as a Rice student in 2006, Tran reached out to Houston through Urban Immersion, an intensive, service-oriented program aimed at introducing students to Houston through cultural experiences and service opportunities, such as building houses, working with children and feeding the hungry.

	ALEX TRAN

“Right then I knew that Houston and Rice University had lots to offer me,” she said. “I was very hesitant to ‘go beyond the hedges’ and volunteer at service sites throughout Houston during my first semester at Rice, but with the help of the CIC, I now feel that service opportunities in Houston and around the globe are within my reach.”

Tran said the staff in the CCE — especially Griswold and CIC assistant directors Christa Leimbach and Sarah Hodgkinson — challenged her and other students to create a bigger impact. Tran has used that as motivation to get involved in and lead other projects on and off campus.

She has participated in and served as a project coordinator for Urban Immersion, Outreach Day and the International Service Project. Held at the end of Rice’s undergraduate orientation week, Outreach Day introduces new students to Houston and teaches them about various service opportunities as they begin their education at Rice. The International Service Project is a two-week service trip during the summer in which Rice students work on projects requested and directed by the indigenous people of San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala.

“I definitely think that my commitments at Rice have given me the tools needed for future independent service,” Tran said.

The lessons she learned about the importance of selecting a well-rounded group of participants and navigating the challenges of fundraising proved especially useful in November 2008, when she established Light of Compassion Inc., a Dallas-based nonprofit designed to connect want-to-be volunteers with service opportunities.

During the Christmas season, 18 volunteers signed on to deliver holiday gift baskets to the elderly residents of an assisted living community in Dallas. A couple of days later about 20 volunteers made and delivered more gift baskets to patients in Baylor Garland Hospital.

“From tutoring high school students to building homes in Houston to sorting coffee beans in Guatemala, I’ve learned new things about myself and my capabilities,” Tran said. “The excellent professors at Rice have also served as my mentors not only in my subjects of study but also in setting life goals. I feel that I’ve grown into somebody that I am content with, and now it is my time to give back.”