Sitting together in seventh grade math, East senior Sarang Back recalled meeting one of her friends and co-club officer for AAA Thomas Truong.
“Thomas was always cheerful and very nice,” Back told Spark. “He was kind of shy at first when I met him but we soon became friends because of similar interests.”
After knowing Truong since middle school, Back, along with East seniors Faith Chau, Micah Wannamaker, and Audrey Charles founded the Asian American Association (AAA) at East.
The five officers started the club in March of the 2023-24 school year.
“It’s funny because we all talked about how we always wanted to do an Asian American Club,” Truong told Spark. “And I think it was because Sarang, last year, had a business class and she wanted to be a leader of a club.”
According to Truong, the group members were all in the same College Credit Plus (CCP) Honors Pre-Calculus class their junior year which is where conversations about the club began.
“We all just talked about it, and then it eventually happened during our last quarter,” said Truong.
At each meeting, one of the five officers presents a slideshow about a specific Asian country. The members all bring in snacks and listen attentively to presentations on cultural differences and countries that they previously have not learned about.
“I think last year we thought we picked too many popular countries, too many countries people already knew about,” said Truong. “So this year we’ve decided to focus on countries that don’t get talked about much.”
AAA is one of the many extracurriculars that Truong is involved in along with the Hoxworth Blood Drive through the University of Cincinnati. East senior Joe Griggs spearheads the initiative alongside Truong.
“We were given project eight for Biomed, which is where you either do a project or 25 hours of internship or shadowing,” Griggs told Spark.
Griggs and Truong’s Biomedical Science teacher James Williams informed them that every few years he has students run a blood drive.
“I turned to Thomas, and I was like, ‘Dude, we should do this.’ He was like, ‘Dude, we should,’ so that’s how it went,” said Griggs.
In early August 2024, they began brainstorming and getting into contact with UC Hoxworth liaisons to set up the drive. According to Griggs, marketing was a crucial part of the drive.
“Once all [the back end stuff] was set up, we were actually finally able to promote it. And that’s where Thomas and I, combined, probably put in most of our effort, posting it on social media and hanging flyers all around the school,” said Griggs. “We advertised during lunch a couple of days before, and it was on announcements and on the TVs, so promoting it was a huge thing.”
Williams played a key role in Griggs and Truong taking over leadership for the blood drive in the first place. Truong said that Williams is one of his biggest motivators.
Troung has had classes with him for the last three years, and he notes that Williams is his favorite teacher.
“Not only is he funny, but he’s also very lenient on the things that he lets his students do,” said Truong. “Most of the assignments are researching a specific study, like the correlation between eating vegetables and obesity.”
According to Williams, Truong is a student with many admirable qualities.
“Thomas is extremely genuine and easy to get behind,” Williams told Spark. “He has a maturity beyond his years, works hard, and is extremely clever.”
Williams has taught Troung in the biomed path consisting of the classes Human Body Systems, Medical Interventions, and Biomedical Innovations.
“Some of the things that really stand out about Thomas are his overall maturity and how he interacts with his peers and teachers,” said Williams.
Williams described Truong as being well-spoken, responsible, and willing to take the initiative to lead others.
“I am thankful for him remaining with the Biomedical pathway where he has blossomed into a leader in the classroom who has the talent and ability to stand out in a room full of other talented individuals,” said Williams.
Truong has Biomed class for his third bell of the day, sandwiched between Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish and Honors Physics. With a goal of challenging himself, he also takes CCP Composition, AP Chemistry, and AP Calculus BC.
“[AP Spanish] is probably one of my favorite classes,” said Truong. “Not only because of the teacher, Señora Cantrell, but also the people I’m friends with in that classroom.”
With the science classes that he has taken in his past four years of high school, Truong hopes that his transition into potential majors in college will be smoother.
“I picked two majors that I think I split amongst the five [colleges I applied to],” said Truong. “So two of them were nursing for four years and then three of them were health sciences on a pre-med track.”
Truong applied to the University of Dayton, The Ohio State University, Northern Kentucky University, and the University of Louisville. He will be the first person in his immediate family to attend college.
“I have just no clue where I will end up, but my dad always told me that he would cry if I went anywhere outside of Ohio,” said Truong. “So I guess my dream school would be anywhere in Ohio.”
He has two brothers, 3-year-old Andy and 20-year-old Tony. Thomas said that family is a significant part of his life.
Thomas mentioned that Andy regularly takes up the biggest chunk of his time, and he always strives to be a good older brother to him.
Along with family are friends. Thomas has met a vast amount of people that he is now close with due to his involvement in and outside of school
“My favorite qualities of Thomas are definitely his strong work ethic and humbleness,” said Back. “His work ethic is contagious, and sometimes it even makes me start doing my work.”
Griggs agreed and added that Thomas’s ability to make people smile is truly striking.
“He’s really good at fitting in with the situation that’s necessary,” said Griggs. “If he needs to work hard, he’s going to work hard. If we’re all having fun, he’s going to have fun, and he’s going to improve every situation that he’s in.”
