The unique Building Bridges (Hmong 101) Program was featured in a
front page story in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper on September 3, 2004.
The Building Bridges (Hmong 101) Program of the Hmong Cultural Center was a
finalist for the 2004 Non-Profit Mission Award in the Anti-Racism category
sponsored by the Minnesota Council on Non-Profits.
HMONG 101 CLASS
NOW IN SESSION
BY TODD NELSON Pioneer Press Published: Friday, Sept 3, 2004
Having the country's largest urban Hmong population has earned the Twin Cities the unofficial title of Hmong capital of the United States.
Awareness of Hmong culture, however, may not to be as widespread as the Southeast Asian people have become in their quarter-century here.
With as many as 5,000 refugees from Thailand on the way, the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul started fielding questions from people asking even the most basic questions: Who are the Hmong? Why are they coming here? Why can't they go back to Laos?
The center's executive director, Txong Pao Lee, and Mark Pfeifer, director of its resource center, were accustomed to answering such queries. But with interest in the Hmong sharply rising, they assembled a formal presentation they call Building Bridges Teaching about the Hmong in Our Communities.
The program sums up 5,000 years of Hmong history and culture in 90 minutes. The presentation is decidedly
low-tech but highly interactive, with Pfeifer and Txong Pao Lee addressing topics and handling questions as they point out photos and news clippings, artwork and artifacts that run floor to ceiling on the center's walls.
"A lot of people, even ones from St. Paul, have no more than a basic knowledge of the Hmong," Pfeifer said. "It kind of came into its own in response to all the calls we were getting from people wanting to know more about the refugees, the Hmong people in general."
Taking in the presentation Thursday were 30 staff members from Admission Possible, a St. Paul nonprofit that helps prepare high school students for college. About half the 550 students the agency works with in nine St. Paul and Minneapolis schools are Hmong, said Jim McCorkell, executive director of Admission
Possible. The staff members are recent college graduates and AmeriCorps volunteers.
"We learn a fair amount about the culture you just pick it up," said McCorkell, referring to the proliferation of Hmong businesses and agencies and the growing Hmong population, which state officials estimate at
60,000. "But some of the historical stuff, with people born after the Vietnam War was over, most of them don't even really know. So to understand where the Hmong people come from and what that's all about, that's really useful."
The Minnesota Humanities Commission is sponsoring three Building Bridges presentations, with each filling up quickly or near capacity, said Tom Fitzpatrick, a senior program officer for the commission.
"The program is a great value to the non-Hmong who came and nice for the Hmong to see things they remember from their experience or being told by their parents or grandparents," Fitzpatrick said, adding the effort is sort of like a class titled "Hmong Culture 101."
The presentation blends the academic perspective of Pfeifer, who holds a doctorate and edits a Hmong studies journal, and the refugee experience of Txong Pao Lee, who was 15 when his family resettled in St. Paul in 1984. Thousands of Hmong, an ethnic minority in Laos, joined the CIA's secret army to fight against communists during the Vietnam War. The Hmong began resettling in this country in 1975, after Laos
fell to communists, who began persecuting those who had sided with the United States.
"You can't live in St. Paul without encountering Hmong businesses, Hmong professionals, Hmong students," said Amanda Ziebell-Finley of Admission Possible. "But a lot of the historical basis was new for me."
Seng Vang, a Hmong-American graduate of Bethel University working with Admission Possible, said hearing about Hmong culture from a native is better than merely reading about it in a book. She said she hoped those who hear the Building Bridges presentation would make the effort to learn more about the culture and the Hmong people first hand.
"If you want to get more in-depth, you have to take the next step, to talk to a person or visit a centralized place for a good amount of time," Seng Vang said. "There are thousands of narratives out there."
front page story in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper on September 3, 2004.
The Building Bridges (Hmong 101) Program of the Hmong Cultural Center was a
finalist for the 2004 Non-Profit Mission Award in the Anti-Racism category
sponsored by the Minnesota Council on Non-Profits.
HMONG 101 CLASS
NOW IN SESSION
BY TODD NELSON Pioneer Press Published: Friday, Sept 3, 2004
Having the country's largest urban Hmong population has earned the Twin Cities the unofficial title of Hmong capital of the United States.
Awareness of Hmong culture, however, may not to be as widespread as the Southeast Asian people have become in their quarter-century here.
With as many as 5,000 refugees from Thailand on the way, the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul started fielding questions from people asking even the most basic questions: Who are the Hmong? Why are they coming here? Why can't they go back to Laos?
The center's executive director, Txong Pao Lee, and Mark Pfeifer, director of its resource center, were accustomed to answering such queries. But with interest in the Hmong sharply rising, they assembled a formal presentation they call Building Bridges Teaching about the Hmong in Our Communities.
The program sums up 5,000 years of Hmong history and culture in 90 minutes. The presentation is decidedly
low-tech but highly interactive, with Pfeifer and Txong Pao Lee addressing topics and handling questions as they point out photos and news clippings, artwork and artifacts that run floor to ceiling on the center's walls.
"A lot of people, even ones from St. Paul, have no more than a basic knowledge of the Hmong," Pfeifer said. "It kind of came into its own in response to all the calls we were getting from people wanting to know more about the refugees, the Hmong people in general."
Taking in the presentation Thursday were 30 staff members from Admission Possible, a St. Paul nonprofit that helps prepare high school students for college. About half the 550 students the agency works with in nine St. Paul and Minneapolis schools are Hmong, said Jim McCorkell, executive director of Admission
Possible. The staff members are recent college graduates and AmeriCorps volunteers.
"We learn a fair amount about the culture you just pick it up," said McCorkell, referring to the proliferation of Hmong businesses and agencies and the growing Hmong population, which state officials estimate at
60,000. "But some of the historical stuff, with people born after the Vietnam War was over, most of them don't even really know. So to understand where the Hmong people come from and what that's all about, that's really useful."
The Minnesota Humanities Commission is sponsoring three Building Bridges presentations, with each filling up quickly or near capacity, said Tom Fitzpatrick, a senior program officer for the commission.
"The program is a great value to the non-Hmong who came and nice for the Hmong to see things they remember from their experience or being told by their parents or grandparents," Fitzpatrick said, adding the effort is sort of like a class titled "Hmong Culture 101."
The presentation blends the academic perspective of Pfeifer, who holds a doctorate and edits a Hmong studies journal, and the refugee experience of Txong Pao Lee, who was 15 when his family resettled in St. Paul in 1984. Thousands of Hmong, an ethnic minority in Laos, joined the CIA's secret army to fight against communists during the Vietnam War. The Hmong began resettling in this country in 1975, after Laos
fell to communists, who began persecuting those who had sided with the United States.
"You can't live in St. Paul without encountering Hmong businesses, Hmong professionals, Hmong students," said Amanda Ziebell-Finley of Admission Possible. "But a lot of the historical basis was new for me."
Seng Vang, a Hmong-American graduate of Bethel University working with Admission Possible, said hearing about Hmong culture from a native is better than merely reading about it in a book. She said she hoped those who hear the Building Bridges presentation would make the effort to learn more about the culture and the Hmong people first hand.
"If you want to get more in-depth, you have to take the next step, to talk to a person or visit a centralized place for a good amount of time," Seng Vang said. "There are thousands of narratives out there."
