Tomas Moreno ’11 (left) speaking to the Wofford community on the importance of standing against world poverty and disease. (Right) ONE at Wofford brought the ONE bus to campus to draw further attention to the cause.
Wofford’s Moreno: ONE dedicated student Tomas Moreno ’11 remembers the first time he went out of his way to really help strangers.
“I was a member of Interact (a national service organization) in high school in California,” he says. “For our club project, we refurbished discarded playground equipment and took it to poor neighborhoods in Mexico. The children just hung back and watched us work, but when we loaded up to go home, they ran to their new playground even before the cement had time to dry. Their enormous smiles gave us all the payback we needed. Each of us realized how little it takes to make a big impact on another person’s life, if you simply take on the task one person at a time.” Moreno brought that attitude and his desire to promote action with him to Wofford. Thanks to his leadership efforts and the work of dozens of ONE volunteers, Wofford upset major state universities such as Florida and Michigan to become the 2009 ONE Campus Challenge champs. ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organization backed by more than 2 million people from around the world dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. “ONE was active on our high school campus in California, and I knew a lot about it even before arriving at Wofford,” says Moreno. “Dr. Ron Robinson knew this, and asked me if I would help get the program started when Wofford became a ONE campus last year. I got some additional training from OXFAM, a great international famine relief organization that has been supported by Wofford students in the past. I also became a regional worker for ONE, and I’ve been on campuses all across the two Carolinas, so I had a pretty good idea what might work at Wofford.” College coaches get noticed by building up successful programs. It always starts with a vision and the ability to rally others around that vision. Moreno had both. “ONE rated us at number 11 last year, so I didn’t see why we couldn’t be number one if enough good people made human rights their personal issue,” he says. “And four phenomenal people did become involved in leadership roles – Jessica Grantham, Sarah Moore, Christine Shelton and Chris Allen. They had great ideas and gave up some sleepless nights to bring it all together.” Moreno and Co. thought outside the box. They employed a strategy that stressed a balance of activities and focused on laying a strong foundation for ONE Campus Challenge’s future on the campus. They turned
Wofford’s relatively small student body size into an advantage and created partnerships that will keep ONE’s message alive at Wofford long after they have graduated. Facing monster campuses like the University of Michigan, with its enrollment of 41,000 students, they knew they’d never be able to compete in petition signatures. So they ran two advocacy initiatives around the Global Food Security Act and the Foreign Assistance Act. By running those two petitions, the Wofford team doubled its impact, bringing in nearly 400 signatures on each petition. ONE at Wofford also joined forces with other campus organizations, departments and official ONE partners. They worked with the biology department to run one promotion. They tied in with the sports marketing team to promote ONE at several sporting events. They collaborated with other groups and in general reached out to students of all faiths with a ONE Sabbath event demonstrating the importance of giving regardless of religious background. When it was over, Wofford won the contest and earned a free concert by the band Vampire Weekend on its campus. “Vampire Weekend was awesome,” says Moreno. “They were really good guys who seemed delighted to play in the Carolinas. It was their first concert in this part of the South.” Moreno is already in close contact with Peace Corps volunteer Alex Schaefer ’06 (aosinafrica@blogspot.com), and hopes for a similar assignment in Africa after graduation. This summer, he has been chosen as one of five ONE campus leaders to travel to Kenya on a week-long seminar. From ONE’s Web site: “The trip is meant to demonstrate to the five dedicated students how their tireless mobilization and advocacy work in the U.S. translates to real, positive change on the ground in Africa. They will take what they learn abroad and use it to motivate and mobilize their fellow students in the fight against global poverty and preventable diseases in next year’s ONE Campus Challenge.” “I have always wanted to go to Africa, and I am sure that I will experience a lot and learn a lot when I am in Kenya this summer,” says Moreno. “I hope to find the personal connection between the statistics you read and the canned stories you hear from NGOs (non-government organizations), and bring it all back home to share with other college students. I understand that the situation there is really indescribable, but I hope to try to make others understand.” by Brett Borden
Summer 2009 • Wofford Today • 9