Thanh X Pham

 Thanh X Pham was born in Vietnam and at the age of twelve, he was told by his mother that he needed to leave Vietnam to come to the United States with his father.

“December 12, 2011,” he recalled, Thanh set foot in the United States landing in Columbus, the city that offered his grandparents the second chance to live their lives when they escaped Vietnam thirty years ago.

Just like his relatives who saw the United States as the land of opportunities when they first arrived, Thanh works hard each day to learn English.

Over a six-year period of studying English, Thanh also learned about American history and politics. He has finally learned what it means to be free, something that many Americans and Vietnamese have died for and people around the world have hoped for. Thanh is now a citizen of the United States after waiting for six years to be eligible to apply and go through the naturalization process of becoming an American. He is prouder than ever to call himself an American and a member of our community.

Thanh began his first service as a volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul Society to serve the poor in the Linden community during his eighth-grade year. He later joined the organization’s leadership team and served as a project manager for its Annual Friends of the Poor Walk, and as president of the youth group, and was selected to represent Columbus at its 2016 National Conference.

At school, Thanh is more than just an active student. He is a leader! He led a group of students to investigate the school district adoption of the CPM mathematics curriculum that he believes led many students to failure or disenchantment with math learning. After interviewing students, parents, and teachers, despite
the discouragement of administrators, Thanh brought the findings to the Westerville Board of Education. Since then, the curriculum has been revised and the administration now allows teachers to customize its delivery in their classrooms. Students, parents, and teachers now have a voice within their own community.

Thanh didn’t stop there; he saw the human trafficking crisis in the state of Ohio and he immediately established an International Amnesty chapter at his high school to work with local organizations like Gracehaven in Columbus to help victims of human trafficking. During his senior year, Thanh even expanded the group into helping kids in Columbus through Boys & Girls Club and the Brian Muha Foundation. The group also wrote kind letters to prisoners through Kairos Prison Ministry to encourage their hearts.