Quick Facts on Christine Nguyen

• Graduates third in her class at Cypress Falls High in Houston; her mother, a native of Vietnam who saw widespread poverty there, always tells Christine that she is a “lucky person.”

• Chooses to enroll at The University of Texas at Austin as a Plan II, business honors, and government major even though she was accepted to Harvard University.

• In the summer of 2004, at age 19, she serves as a mentor to young orphaned girls who are victims of sex trafficking in Vietnam.

• Creates the Southeast Asian Children’s Coalition, an international nonprofit organization that combats poverty and exploitation; serves as the coalition's executive director.

• Raises more than $60,000 for the Southeast Asian Children’s Coalition to provide scholarships for children, support vocational education for adults, and facilitate the creation of a library to promote literacy.

• Returns annually to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to continue her mission; the coalition is now helping orphaned girls in Nha Trang City and Bangkok, Thailand.

• Receives national attention, along with her coalition, when she is profiled in “Glamour” magazine as one of the “Top 10 College Women of 2006” for her leadership on campus, involvement in the community, and excellence in her field of study.

• Graduates from UT in May 2008, receiving the Dean's Distinguished Graduate Award for her leadership, scholarly achievements, and service to the community.

• Receives the Rubenstein Fellowship to attend the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School in fall 2008.

• “My education at UT taught me that we live in an interconnected world,” Nguyen says. “My goal is to use that knowledge to move seamlessly between the government, nonprofit, and business sectors to find real, workable solutions to the human-rights issues facing the world today.”