Bio:

attends the University of Tulsa. The junior from Broken Arrow, OK, known for her writing, research and debate skills, majors in economics and environmental policy. She is of Vietnamese heritage, and in 1999 lived in Vietnam for eight months while visiting relatives. Her encounters with the stifling repression of its Communist government energized her to work with organizations promoting democratic principles. She served as a coordinator for the American-Vietnam Cultural Exchange Association, which encourages cross-cultural awareness and engages in humanitarian projects to introduce Vietnamese to American concepts of rights and values. She also worked for Pacific Ventures, Inc., a corporation employing trade as a method to help make the Vietnamese regime more open to international influences and greater freedom. A member of the student government, Tina is a leader in the Oklahoma Federation of College Republicans and, last year, was chairwoman of the Tulsa club. She has organized and worked on voter registration drives, roundtable discussions, and political debates on campus, in the Tulsa area, and statewide. She has volunteered on political campaigns and, since 1999, has been a legislative assistant to State Senator Scott Pruitt, who says that she "is unlike any other college student I have ever met" because of her drive and dedication. "Tina is exceptional," states a senior Tulsa professor. Her ability to succeed is "confirmation of my early judgement that she [is] particularly gifted and [possesses] the self-discipline to be effective when challenged."

School: UNIVERSITY OF TULSA