Lucas Thomeier
Defiance College
Lucas Thomeier, a junior at Defiance College, has a passion for helping others on-campus, locally and internationally. Lucas is a Service Leader accumulating an average of 150 hours of service learning each year. He is an active member of Alpha Phi Omega the College’s Service Fraternity. His service involves participating in a campus student-run non-profit project that manages the recycling on campus; and working with young children as a volunteer at the local YMCA. Lucas was named a McMaster School for Advancing Humanity Scholar to Belize for 2019-2020 where he engaged in a yearlong community-based research project. Lucas worked in Belize teaching students, teachers, and parents about the symptoms and responses to traumatic brain injuries. He also taught emergency response skills to remote communities in rural Belize. These isolated communities are at least three hours from the nearest hospital and have no health care worker stationed in the community so this information and skill training is invaluable. Lucas service includes participation on strategic on-campus initiatives as well. He serves as the treasurer on the Campus Activity Board, a member of the Defiance College Student Athlete Advisory Committee, a member of the Intercultural Relations Program, and the Defiance College Baseball Team.
Personal Statement
While growing up, serving others and trying to make an impact on my community became a norm to me. Through role models, my parents, coaches and others who encouraged me to put forth effort to positively impact others, I have grown personally. In college, I continue to be involved. As a collegiate athlete and resident assistant, I can positively impact my peers on a daily basis. Additionally, I am a member of Defiance College’s Service Leadership Program which requires a commitment to complete 500 hours of service in 4 years. I volunteer at the YMCA and work through Defiance College’s student-run non-profit organization on various projects that affect children, the unemployed, and the environment. I was named a McMaster Scholar in 2019-2020 allowing me to engage in a community-based research project that involved providing emergency response training to small remote communities in northern Belize. I was part of a 12-person team that implemented 14 different projects over the course two weeks. As a McMaster Scholar, I have been able to make a direct connection between my course of study and the needs of humanity in a context that I had never imagined, a context beyond my campus and local community.
