Winnie Christensen, director, Miss Africa Idaho scholarship program in Twin Falls

For Winnie Christensen, helping out in the community isn’t just something she does when she has time: it’s what she makes time for.

“I like giving back because the community’s been so nice to me,” she says. “And whatever you put in, you get back out.”

And Christensen certainly puts in her all.

Born in Kenya, Christensen split her childhood between her father’s home in Africa and her mother’s in the United States. She went to school in both countries, and for that, she counts herself lucky.

“High school (in the United States) was such a culture shock for me,” she says, laughing. “But I’m very blessed that I can appreciate American culture (as well as) African culture.”

After moving to the United States permanently in 2005, Christensen attended Idaho State University and studied political science and international relations. Upon graduation, she moved to Twin Falls and started working for SL Start, a social services organization, helping people with disabilities, but it wasn’t “where my passion was.” It was then that she started volunteering at the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center.

“It was so fulfilling,” Christensen says of that time. “In one place, I could help people on an international level and in the local community. It was meant to be.”

She worked as a volunteer and translator, and in 2014, she also became a community advisor for the CSI Diversity Council, a position she still holds. In the same year, she began working with the GK Folks Foundation’s Miss Africa Idaho Scholarship Program, and in 2015, she became the program’s director.

“At first, I thought the scholarship program was so huge that I couldn’t do it, but the results were so amazing that I felt it was worth it,” Christensen says.

The program is about education and cultural scholarship — “no bikinis, no fitness competitions” — and bringing the best of Africa to the stage. Contestants present platforms for research and proposed cultural change both in the United States and in Africa and display talents such as dancing, poetry reading or cooking. The program “gives them an opportunity to show their pride, heritage, goals and visions for Africa,” Christensen says.

Another project Christensen is undertaking is the creation of the Refugee Healing Support Alliance, a nonprofit she started with Liyah Babayan, a 2015 Idaho Business Review Women of the Year honoree, Twin Falls entrepreneur and herself an Armenian political refugee. Their mission is to help refugees heal from traumatic experiences and learn to live and work in the United States. Christensen says she finds particular joy in helping women through this program

“My major goal in life is to see more women, children and girls empowered to voice out their opinion…and make major changes in the world,” she says.

Christensen is also a proud wife to husband Antone and mother to son Val Kitavi, 3 (Kitavi means “warrior” in Swahili). She loves cooking and recently mastered Chicken Cordon Bleu, and she also enjoys singing, shopping and making new friends.

In all she does, Christensen strives to live by her personal philosophy: always give back to the community and be conscious of how you make people feel, “because life is a chain reaction.”