By Spencer Rogers
THE fellahs out on “the floor” of the BYUSA office room call her “Big Al.” The nickname is 22 years old, the offshoot of an aunt’s wry humor. “When I was born I was a fat, fat little baby,” Alex Thein confides. But the nine-pound newborn was destined to end her aunt’s fun by growing up slim and athletic—first as a young gymnast, then as a high-school mascot and butterfly swimmer, and last year as a volunteer coaching assistant for Orem High’s swim team. The nickname was hardly a fit, and eventually it faded out.
So why is it “Big Al” again, nowadays? After an exhilarating freshman year at BYU, the Californian, then a convert of three years to the LDS Church, decided to work as a Y-group leader in the summer of ’97, mostly so she could tell new students that “BYU is the best thing that will ever happen to them.” But first things first: “I put ‘Big Al’ in my nametag just because ‘Alex’ is kind of boring. So it came back.”
And it stayed back.
During the ’99–’00 school year, she wore the oversized shoes of the BYUSA Vice-President of Campus Activities. Her third year of student life leadership, which included training five other officers and countless volunteers, left no room for smallness. She ran meetings, kept track of budgets, and oversaw the materialization of events ranging from the Unforum to Spring Fling.
“Alex’s motivational leadership style is a legend among student volunteers at BYUSA,” comments Anne R. Rumsey, student leadership coordinator and Alex’s adviser. “But the best part of this humble girl is that people love her and she loves them. Alex is the kind of person you would do anything for.”
Thein, likewise, has done plenty for BYUSA. During her last year there, she made a presentation at the National Association of Campus Activities conference in Modesto, Calif.; wrote a manual revamping BYUSA’s training program; saved more than $30,000 with her careful budgeting; and sat on the 1999 Homecoming executive committee.
Rumsey adds that the two years she spent advising Thein at BYUSA were the highlight of her career. “I’ve learned more about responsibility and stewardship from her than from any other professional experience of my own,” she says.
Not only has Thein left her mark at BYU, but this year her leadership reached off campus as well. In April she finished her student teaching at Orem’s Canyon View Junior High School and graduated from BYU with a degree in school health education and minors in French teaching and PE/coaching. Soon she hopes to teach and coach at the high school level.
“She has a tremendous rapport with the students,” says health sciences professor Paul E. Coon, Thein’s student teaching supervisor and the former bishop of her on-campus ward. “She desires to be an inspiration to her students. And she doesn’t just teach the subject matter—she also addresses their social and spiritual and emotional needs. You can’t help but love Alex—it’s that magnetism she has.”
Though Thein acknowledges that student-teacher relationships can be essential in shaping young lives, she believes that she’ll have a greater influence on her future family. “You can do so much more good in your own home,” she says. “The kids [at school] are great, and I love being with them. But I’ve learned that the ones who will matter most to me are the ones I will give birth to.”
As a teenager investigating the Church, she found herself attracted most by the LDS position on the family. “That was the first thing that really rang true to me,” she says.
Her hours with missionaries and Mormon friends catalyzed a chain of events: she gained a testimony, got baptized, applied to BYU, and went on pioneer treks. Eventually Thein ended up mentoring schoolkids and organizing activities for tens of thousands of BYU students. Hardly small projects.
But Thein recognizes that these successes aren’t hers alone. “In BYUSA, I didn’t just create Campus Activities. The only thing I tried to do was build upon what everyone else has done.”
One mentor in particular—the high school teacher who seeded in Thein a desire to teach and a passion for French—helped point her in the direction she’s traveling now. “Madame Soper really motivated me to go to college, and her compliments gave me the self-esteem that I needed,” she says.
Whether they’re BYUSA officers past and present, the high school friends who introduced her to the Church, former teachers, or even the Mormon pioneers, says Thein, “You have to pay your respects to those people who have influenced your life at the crossroads.”
In fact, Isaac Newton’s claim that stature comes from “standing on the shoulders of giants” has become something of a personal motto for “Big Al.”
True, Thein has been lifted by her predecessors. But as coworkers, professors, peers, and junior high students will testify, she’s got pretty giant shoulders herself.
