Sreytom Tim was born and raised in a small village in Cambodia. In 2015, she became a SHE-CAN scholar and later was awarded a SHE-CAN Supernoma award recognizing her exceptional engagement and leadership by bringing exponential love, energy, and inspiration. SHE-CAN, Supporting Her Education Changes A Nation, is an organization helping girls from third-world countries to pursue higher education in U.S. colleges. She recently graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMN-TC) with a BS in Family Social Science and Management minor. Throughout her college journey, she excelled in both academics and professional/leadership. She acquired various experiences, skills, and knowledge from several internships and training programs, including event coordination, public relations, international student advising, mentorship, consultancy, leadership, project management, community engagement, and communications.
While attending UMN-TC, she became a board member at the Cambodian Student Association of Minnesota (CSAM) as an event coordinator and public relation. She successfully planned, executed, monitored, and evaluated CSAM events throughout the year. She served as a great representative for CSAM within the community and helped with relationship building. She volunteered to mentor immigrant and refugee high school girls at Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment, which helps empower immigrant and refugee women and girls to succeed through advocacy and culturally competent services. She helped provide academic support, relationship-building, facilitate self-empowerment workshops, and share college experiences.
In summer 2018, she was a communication and partnership intern for Girls on Fire Leaders, a nonprofit in New York that educates and empowers adolescent girls in Kenya through leadership camps, educational scholarships, community engagement. As an intern, Sreytom strategized, wrote, and edited content for social media promotions and researched/gathered data about potential sponsors and partners. In summer 2019, she was a project intern for a private company in Cambodia. She was a host-in-training (HIT) for the Young Professionals for Sustainable Development Goals Seminar Series (YPSDGs) at the United Nations Association of the United States of America, San Francisco Chapter, in which she wrote a collective narrative, co-designed and co-facilitated workshops, recruited and matched mentors with participants, etc.
Upon her graduation in 2020, her recent position was a research assistant at Worldview Studio, an NGO based in San Francisco, where Sreytom developed specific content, researched, synthesized, and documented academic studies, programs, policies, and specific interventions about topics, including trauma, biotechnology, science and religion, cognitive load, and cultural mismatch. In addition, she researched and project managed infographics on cultural brokering: what it is, why it matters, and tips for success.
Sreytom is passionate about promoting gender equality and quality education, advancing economic development, and human rights, especially for women and children in Cambodia and other emerging countries. She is determined and driven to contribute strong leadership and organizational skills, interdisciplinary background in family science and management. She is curious and perseverance, welcomes new challenges, and enjoys collaborating with others. In addition, she enjoys empowering and inspiring others. She loves traveling, cooking, and volunteering for the community. Sreytom is excited to join Leaps for Peace as a Cambodian advisor, coaching and training for her next adventure.
“I believe CSAUSA will serve as a great space for Cambodian students to learn more about what it is like to study and live in the United States, so that they can be well prepared for their U.S. education journey”, Sreytom said.
She believes that having a support community group can be comforting to Cambodian students who are already in the state. As a part of CSAUSA, she hopes to bring her experience about both the U.S. and Cambodia to serve Cambodian students/community, so they do not have to struggle so much like she did without the association.
“When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that door of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.” ~ Michelle Obama
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