| Perhaps it harkens back to the history of the Hmong in Southeast Asia where they have survived despite not having a country and always besieged by others living in close proximity to them. In spite of the odds, the Hmong have survived and have now succeeded in the United States. The family of KaShia Moua, who graduated this spring from the UW-Madison Law School, was one of the first 100 Hmong families to arrive in the U.S. after the fall of Saigon caused the U.S. allies to flee Laos and seek asylum in Thailand. Moua's father, mother and two older brothers were plopped down in Eau Claire, Wis., the only Hmong family for miles. Moua was born after her family settled in Eau Claire. "The community, for the most part, was warm and welcoming and friendly," Moua recalled as we sat outside the law school on a beautiful spring day. "At the same time, this was the first time that community dealt with a family that is non-White. When I went to school, the only students who were non-White were basically my two brothers and I. We didn't have an African American population or a Native American population. There was no Latino population. We were pretty much it. And so, it was a pretty interesting upbringing because every day you went to school and that's all you saw and that's all you knew. But when we went home, obviously, our parents didn't know any of that. We only spoke Hmong to our parents. Even to this day, we only speak Hmong to our parents. I had the experience that pretty much every immigrant-refugee had, that whole culture clash living between two worlds kind of thing. But because of the time when we came, it was to an extreme because we were it. Going home, it was like a totally different world." There were no resettlement services that existed at the time. There were no ESL classes. For 2-3 hours every day, Moua was yanked out of her regular classes and sat with a social worker. That was the extent of the ESL. To keep her self-image intact, her parents told her she was in a talented and gifted program. "I honestly thought 'Wow, these kids have no idea what they are doing. I am so far ahead of them and the teachers like me better,'"Moua recalled with a chuckle. "Growing up, I never had this complex of not being as smart or being behind because my parents always told me that I was more intelligent so the school wanted one-on-one time with me." As in most Hmong families at the time, Moua and her brothers became the brokers for their parents because their parents knew no English. They would translate at parent-teacher conferences and in other situations where her parents had to interface with the world. "I took advantage of the situation sometimes," Moua confided. "There were field trips that were completely optional and I went home and told my parents 'I have to go on this skiing trip or I'm going to flunk this class.' We had no money, but my parents would fork over the $80 to pay for my lift ticket because they thought that was what I needed for school. I definitely was one of those kids who took advantage of that." Next issue: Law School and Beyond |
| Graduation at the University of Wisconsin Law School A commitment to change By Jonathan Gramling Part 1 of 2 |
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