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DC resident nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize...and she's not even 30 yet!

Amanda Nguyen is also nominated for the $50,000 Diane von Furstenberg People's Voice Award for 2019
Credit: Getty
Amanda Nguyen speaks onstage during the Marie Claire Young Women's Honors presented by Clinique. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Young Women's Honors)

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Her road to activism starts with what many would deem a sad story, but founder and CEO of the non-profit Rise, 27 year-old, Amanda Nguyen, refused to be a victim. Now she is a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

She was sexually assaulted during her final year at Harvard University. During that harrowing ordeal she found out that in Massachusetts the state law allowed rape kits to be destroyed after six month, whether or not an assailant had been brought to justice, and despite the fact that the state statute of limitations to file charges against a rapist was 15 years.

That math just didn't add up for the then-21-year-old student and she decided two things. That she could change that law and she could be a voice for all sexual assault victims. 

"After connecting with other survivors, I quickly learned this fight was not mine alone. The idea of hundreds, thousands or even millions of survivors rising together to overcome shame, guilt, or even injustice, filled me with hope", says Nguyen.

In 2014, Nguyen founded Rise, her national civil rights nonprofit dedicated to helping survivors of sexual violence. She penned her own civil rights into existence and Congress unanimously passed the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, which was signed into law by President Obama in 2016. The federal law was the 21st bill in modern US history to pass unanimously on the record. Since the federal enactment, 14 state bills protecting sexual violence survivors have been created, all modeled off of her federal law. And more states are preparing to adopt it.

The fight wasn't easy, she tells us, "I remember when I couldn’t get anyone’s attention on this issue. I once poured my heart out to an intern in the hallway of Congress for 5 minutes just to talk to anyone about these rights. Now, I continue to return to those same hallowed halls, having won my fight. We’ve come a long way, but the fight isn’t over yet and I must still fight for these rights, state-by-state."

People, and organizations, have taken notice and she's been nominated for some very prestigious awards. One of which is the Diane von Furstenberg DVF Awards. They honor and recognize incredible women – both well-known and ‘unsung heroes’ who are champions of causes and issues that are important to them. Diane gives each of the women $50,000 to further their cause. Nguyen is nominated for the Peoples' Voice Award and the public can vote through March 24th, 2019.  

She's also been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced in October 2019. And for Nguyen, it's a pretty big deal. She shared on Great Day Washington, "I always joke, I don't want a wedding, I want a Nobel Peace Prize!", saying the ceremony is a beautiful one.

Again, still yet to reach her 30th birthday, Nguyen has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30; by Foreign Policy as a Top 100 Leading Global Thinker; Marie Claire as a Young Woman of the Year; and The Tempest's #1 Woman of Color Trailblazer. She was previously appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Department of State as his Deputy White House Liaison and served at NASA. 

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