Smeyder “Steffi” Silvera is a former student-athlete born and raised in the “Heart of South America” with a long-standing appreciation for the unique cultures found around the world. She graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration-Entrepreneurship and a minor in World Languages. Ms. Silvera also earned a Master’s in Business Administration while working full-time as a graduate Assistant Coach for the SWOSU Women’s Soccer team.

Her passion for representing her home country, Paraguay, has become a driven source for her to showcase her Paraguayan culture and traditions in the United States. She embraces her Paraguayan roots by dancing and singing at major events such as the Hispanic Cultural Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol, the Oklahoma City Festival of Arts, Art Around the World at the OKC Downtown Library and several others.

Silvera is currently working as Relationship Banker at First United Bank. She recently joined the Oklahoma City Young Professional (OKCYP) which is a group of individuals who are seeking to gain better insight in connecting with their peers to positively impacting their community around them.

Furthermore, Ms. Silvera is a student ambassador for the Oklahoma Governor’s International Team. In this role, she promotes the strategic development of activities focused on cultural exchange and the advancement of international students in all of Oklahoma. As a student ambassador, she co-founded OK Glocal, a platform to display the events and personal stories of the international community in Oklahoma.

As a Global Ambassador with the Happy World Foundation Inc., Ms. Silvera has volunteered countless hours virtually connecting Global Studies and Foreign Language classrooms from across the United States with her Paraguayan culture. Ms. Silvera even recruited lots of volunteers from across Latin America to join the organizations’ Global Connect database of over 1200 volunteers from 150+ countries. Thanks to her efforts and her servant leadership, thousands of students who had never had the opportunity to travel now have the unique opportunities to experience the world without ever leaving their classrooms.