Community members can come and see the incredible impact that the Hmong Language and Culture Program has had this year and over the last 14 years at the 14th annual Hmong Language and Culture Open House on Thursday, July 23, at 11 a.m. at The Hmong Institute.
“Folks and participants who come to the open house will be able to meet the students and learn more about the program. The students have planned activities, so everything from teaching them some Hmong words and phrases to playing games and learning some of the history of the Hmong coming to the United States,” Peng Her, CEO of the Hmong Institute, tells Madison365.
The Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program is an intensive six-week summer program where, for eight hours a day, Hmong students learn about their roots, explore their culture and traditions, learn their native language, and meet and learn from Hmong college students and mentors in their community.
“We started this program 14 years ago when [Hmong] parents were sharing with us that their students weren’t doing well in school,” Her remembers. “They didn’t have any data, but they just knew that their children weren’t getting the support they needed.”
At that time, Her and the Hmong Institute were able to get the Hmong data disaggregated away from the Asian student population data throughout the Madison Metropolitan School District. “And it showed at that time that like 92% of Hmong students could not read at grade level, and I think like 86% of Hmong students could not perform math at grade level,” Her remembers. “And so, with those two things in our mind, we worked with the community to say, ‘What can we do to support our students? We knew that if they were grounded in their language, knew where they were from, and had pride in their culture. They would do better in school.”
The Hmong Institute would go on to create the Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program, which helps Hmong students learn about who they are and where they are from while teaching them about their language and culture.
“Using that philosophy of culturally and linguistically relevant teaching model, we met every Friday evening, for about three months, with parents, with the community, designing this program, creating a budget,” Her says.
“I remember one community member said, ‘How much does it cost to pay for one teacher?’ and I came up with a number, and he said, ‘I’ll sponsor that staff person.’ So he paid for that staff person,” Her continues. “Another parent said, ‘I will pay for all the snacks for the year.’ So it was that initial coming together that came up with a budget to be able to open up this program 14 years ago.”
Over those 14 years, the Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program has been a great benefit for Madison-area Hmong students, but also something beautiful for parents and grandparents.
“We always have guest speakers come in and speak to the students, and oftentimes they are young professionals in the community who might be physicians, police officers, school teachers or principals,” Her says. “But we also have guest speakers who are elders who come in and share what life was like back in Laos. They share some of their talents and traditions, like singing traditional Hmong folk songs.
“It’s so wonderful to see the young professionals and the elders keeping the culture and language alive, and that’s been very helpful to the students,” he adds.
Hmong parents are also required to volunteer as part of the program.
“So it’s not just enough to send the kids, but the parents come and volunteer because we want to see how important it is for them to be active in their child’s education,” Her says. “The parents get to see that their children are having good, nutritious food and that there is support for their kids, so when their child goes back to their home school, they have instilled in them this desire to continue participating and being active and they also continue advocating for their child’s education in their regular home school year-round.”
The 14th annual open house for the Hmong Language and Culture Program will be a chance for the community to participate in student-led learning activities, learn Hmong words, and have lunch with the students. The students are excited to share what they have learned and teach others about Hmong heritage, Her says.
“The event is open to the public. It starts at 11, and then we also invite folks to stay with us and have a traditional Hmong meal,” Her says. “And so, one of the other things about the program is that, in addition to the language and culture, food is an important aspect, and so having Hmong food every day is important versus a traditional hot meal that you get at a traditional school provided by the school district.”
The Hmong Institute is located at 4402 Femrite Dr. in Madison.
