Brief History
During the 1980’s there were only around 12 South East Asian students
who attended UW-Stevens Point. The Director of the Educational
Opportunity Program, Mr. Jim Vance, felt it was necessary for the SE
Asians to form a group and make themselves known to UWSP and the
community. Thus, South East Asian American Connection (SEAAC) was born.
SEAAC was full of diversity from Hmong, Laotian, Japanese, to Korean,
but by 1995, its active members consisted of mostly of Hmong students.
At this point, a ballot was cast to vote for a new club name and the
name HaSEAAC was the winning vote. Along with its many changes, HaSEAAC
became a well-functioned club with many events to promote Hmong and
Southeast Asian awareness. Many leaders have come and gone, bringing to
the club new ideas and bigger events. Members, who are the backbone of
this club, change year by year and in doing so, HaSEAAC will be forever
changing.
Full History of HaSEAAC
by Sue Clark Kubley
Updated October 2003
During the early 1980's there were few SE Asian students enrolled
at UW-Stevens Point (UW-SP). Therefore, it was of great significance in
the fall of 1987 when 12 SE Asian students were enrolled. These 12
included Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese students.
Mr. Jim Vance was the Director of the Educational Opportunity
Program (EOP) at the time, and he sincerely felt that the SE Asian
students would benefit if they could come together as a group. Mr. Vance
hosted a meeting and invited all the students to discuss their ideas
about organizing a club. I was also invited to this meeting, and
realized that the students were indeed very interested in Mr. Vance's
proposal. Thus, the South East Asian American Connection (SEAAC) was
born. A creative student, Shane Tawr, came up with the name for the
club.
I was, (and still am), an Academic Counselor in the Educational
Support Program, (ESP), and it seemed appropriate for me to become the
Advisor for SEAAC. I was also very interested in getting involved with
this club. SEAAC was fortunate to have Debbie Sakai, an upper-class
student, Co-Advising during the first two years. Debbie was a great
asset to the club, as she was full on energy and enthusiasm.
Shane Tawr and another delightful student, Zer Yang, served as
Co-Presidents during SEAAC's second year. They both did a super job
bringing cohesiveness to the club, while at the same time honing their
leadership skills.
The club functioned mostly as a support group during the first
couple of years. We had campus and community speakers come in to present
on a wide variety of topics such as: major/career decisions, study
skills, stress management, time management, wellness, financial aid, and
many others. We also had lots of get-togethers just for fun, socials,
game playing, and volleyball.
In those early years our group was very diverse and counted among
their members not only the SE Asians, that is, Hmong, Laotian,
Cambodian, and Vietnamese, but also Japanese-American,
Japanese-National, Korean-American, Chinese-American, and non-Asian
students. Everyone learned a lot from each other, and really enjoyed
making new friends within the club.
Shane Tawr was President during the 1989-1990 school year. Under
his capable leadership, SEAAC hosted their first Educational Conference
held on the UW-SP campus. This was a conference targeted at SE Asian
high school students. SEAAC's members wanted to give information to the
students about college, and about UW-SP in particular, and to encourage
them to put college in their future.
Another prominent feature of 1989-1990 was the fact that Maria
(Coppinger) Panqueva took over as the Advisor for SEAAC, while I was out
on family leave. Maria was the Activities Coordinator in Cultural
Diversity Programs at that time. SEAAC thrived under her guidance, and I
greatly enjoyed Co-Advising the club with Maria for the remainder of the
year when I returned from my leave. It was at this point in time, too,
that SEAAC began to focus more and more on promoting cultural awareness
of SE Asian issues and concerns.
SEAAC hit a big milestone in 1989: official recognition as a
student organization by Student Government Association (SGA). SEAAC
enjoyed this new status. With each passing year, SEAAC was becoming more
actively involved in campus events and activities, participating in such
events as Spud Bowl, Homecoming, UW-SP Open Houses, International
Festivals, and many other exciting events.
Another dynamic leader, Nay Veng, was the elected President during
the 1990-1991 school year. SEAAC sponsored their first Volleyball
Tournament under Nay's able leadership and it turned out very well. By
this point in time, there were 30 SE Asian students enrolled at UW-SP,
with the majority of these students actively involved in SEAAC.
Discussions on topics of special interest began to be popular with the
club.
A second Volleyball Tournament was held during the 1991-1992 school
year coordinated by two excellent, committed Presidents that year, Tony
Yang and Bee Sayaovang. This event was again very successful. Another
major milestone occurred in 1992: SEAAC submitted a proposal to receive
annual funding from SGA, and the proposal was approved. SEAAC has
continuously submitted successful proposals and has been annually funded
by SGA every year since that time.
A capable and skillful Sam (Y. Seng) Ly was President during
1992-1993. He guided the club to implement another Educational
Conference, again targeted toward high school students. Sam felt very
strongly that we needed to do our best to get the word out to young
students to consider college as a viable option for themselves. Carol
Lanphear-Cook and Roxanne Schuster provided excellent advising during
the fall of 1992 as I was again out on leave. At that time, Carol was an
Academic Counselor & Tutoring Coordinator in ESP; Roxanne was (and still
is) an Academic Counselor in ESP.
A very talented student named Vilay Her was elected President for 2
years, 1993-1994 & 1994-1995. Increasingly, SEAAC was focusing more and
more on promoting cultural awareness. Another Educational Conference was
held and following that, a Talent/Cultural Show & Dance. Both of these
events focused on a broader audience beyond just SE Asian high school
students, and both events went a long way toward promoting more cultural
awareness.
At this point in time, 1995, SEAAC's active members consisted
largely of Hmong students. After much discussion and deliberation it was
decided that the name should be changed to reflect this fact. Many
members submitted possible new names for the club. Then a vote was
taken, and the winner was: Hmong and South East Asian American Club
(HaSEAAC). It was felt that Hmong students new to campus would now
immediately recognize this as a club for them, but that other SE Asian
students would continue to view it as a club welcoming them also. Of
course, this student organization has always been open to everyone, and
has always enjoyed and valued all its members, whatever their heritage.
However, the focus remains on SE Asian issues and concerns.
Things ran very smoothly under the dynamic leadership of Ker Yang,
President during 1995-1996. HaSEAAC sponsored two well-attended dances,
one in Stevens Point and one, a Valentine's Dance, in Wausau. HaSEAAC
was now focusing less on big formal projects, and more on small informal
projects. Ker made sure that there were plenty of chances for members to
get together to relax, have fun, and to enjoy each other's company.
HaSEAAC members had occasionally attended conferences at other campuses
in the past, but Ker encouraged everyone to make it a priority to attend
enlightening conferences whenever the opportunity arose. Ker was also
instrumental in getting the club involved in state and regional
networking groups.
One other interesting note about HaSEAAC's history I would like to
share is that UW-Stevens Point offers a Hmong Foreign Language Placement
test because of a HaSEAAC initiative, led by Ker Yang, to bring this
test to our campus. This came about because HaSEAAC wanted it to happen
and worked to see that it did happen. I facilitated a discussion with
the Chair of the Foreign Language dept. at that time, Dr. Jan Seiler,
and she listened carefully to the students' requests. She worked
diligently to find an appropriate test, and she was successful. The
students are very pleased to have this Placement test available on our
campus, and many students have since taken this Placement test to meet
their Foreign Language requirement.
HaSEAAC was also becoming more and more involved in outreaching into
the community through volunteer work, working for the CAP Services Hmong
Advocacy program, and by participating in cultural awareness events
sponsored by different community agencies. Community outreach was a
major focus for Maineng Moua (Xiong), the charismatic President for
1996-1997. In particular, guided HaSEAAC to target their efforts toward
the local high schools and junior highs. Maineng's other enthusiastic
effort as President was directed at fund-raising (a Dance and egg-roll
sale). Also, that year, two dynamic speakers were brought to campus to
do presentations on the Hmong. One speaker was Mary Cayford, the Portage
County Hmong Advocate for many years. Her presentation was very
informative for the interested campus participants. The second speaker
was actually a performer named Tou Ger Xiong - an actor, comedian,
entertainer, storyteller, rap-singer - among other things. The UWSP
campus benefited by having HaSEAAC bring these excellent presenters
here.
As 1996 was winding down, HaSEAAC had another exciting happening:
the creation of a home page. Since then, we have been able to promote
cultural awareness to the world via Internet! The person we have to
thank for the creation of this excellent HaSEAAC home page is May Ko
Thao Yang. At the time, May Ko was the Secretary for HaSEAAC, and
obviously(!) is very talented in Computer Information Systems work.
Thank you May Ko!
The 1997-1998 President of HaSEAAC was Meng Thao. Meng is a divergent
thinker, and therefore was able to bring new, and unique perspectives to
goals and ideals of HaSEAAC. With strong support from his fellow
officers, Meng lead efforts to make genuine bonds with the Hmong high
school students in Stevens Point. We co-sponsored dances with them, had
joint-participation in the Portage County Cultural Festival with them,
invited them to spend time on campus, attended their meetings, and they
sometimes attended our meetings. HaSEAAC provided excellent role models
for the students, and encouraged them to think about postsecondary
education for themselves. The highlight of the year was HaSEAAC's
mini-conference for the high school students called "Food for Thought" -
with the theme being "Education, Essential Food for Success". The two
excellent speakers were Ron Strege, Director of Multicultural Affairs,
and UWSP Alumnus and former HaSEAAC President, Ker Yang, who was then
working at the Wausau Hmong Association. The high school students were
pleased with the conference, and with the home-cooked, delicious Hmong
food HaSEAAC served to them for lunch.
The 1998-1999 school year for HaSEAAC was a great year under the
consistently positive leadership of Lo Lee. He was an excellent
President for HaSEAAC, responsible, highly organized, effective, and
full of creative ideas to offer. He was fortunate to have unending
support from his fellow officers, Meng Thao, Alicia Roth, and Song
Cheng. They functioned as a terrific team. Major events that HaSEAAC
sponsored that year were a camping trip, a fall fund-raising dance, and
a spring dance after the second mini-conference "Food for Thought 2",
held primarily for college bound SE Asian students from Wausau. One of
the featured speakers was again Ron Strege, Director of Multicultural
Affairs. HaSEAAC's other key speaker was Fungchatou Lo, a Hmong college
professor who was teaching at UW-Oshkosh at that time. Mr. Lo was one of
only five Hmong college teachers in the U.S during that year. We were
very pleased to have given the high school students the opportunity to
hear both of these excellent speakers. And again, the Hmong food was
fantastic!
One of the highlights that came near the end of Lo Lee’s presidency
was HaSEAAC’s participation in the Portage County Cultural Festival.
HaSEAAC sold candy and Asian cookies, and provided hands-on (Hmong)
activities and games for kids. Another highlight was when some of the
HaSEAAC students went to the elementary schools to give interactive
presentations on the Hmong History and Culture. They were very excited
about teaching the young kids about the Hmong culture.
Next came the Presidency of Blong Yang. He was elected President for
two consecutive years, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. Blong was very
enthusiastic about the presentations on Hmong history/culture, and he
continued to lead the way for many more. These presentations, which were
very well received, were given in elementary schools in Stevens Point
and Junction City; in the Lincoln Center for the Dept. on Aging; and at
the Plover Branch of the Portage County Public Library.
Blong wanted to promote the Hmong culture whenever possible. Thus, he
secured permission for HaSEAAC to have access to a display case in the
Lafollette Lounge in the University Center. This display case was filled
with a myriad of beautiful Hmong art and artifacts.
Blong provided the leadership for two conferences during his tenure
as President. In the spring of 2000, the HaSEAAC sponsored conference
was called: “Information Technology in the New Millennium.” This
conference featured Colleen Andrews from Information Technology at UWSP.
She admirably addressed the many issues around the rapidly expanding
world of technology. The conference held in the spring of 2001 was
entitled: “Hmong Voices in Education, Culture, and Technology.” Again,
HaSEAAC focused on the vastly important ideas of technology and how it
was affecting the Hmong culture and the education of Hmong people.
HaSEAAC had wonderful speakers for this event. Dr. Fungchatou Lo,
Colleen Andrews, Ron Strege all presented again for this excellent
conference. Other presenters were Ker Yang, UWSP Alumnus and currently a
high school Counselor in the St. Paul School District; Ya Myyoufu Yang,
a Business Developer and member of the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual
Association; and Bao Ger Lo, UWSP Alumnus and Computer Consultant from
Wausau.
The highlight of Blong’s Presidency was the offering of a non-credit
class called Hmong 101. The Hmong 101 class was Blong’s idea; he wanted
to provide the campus and community with an opportunity to learn some
basic, conversational Hmong at no cost. Blong dedicated himself to the
planning and implementation of this class, and he was also one of the
teachers. I took Hmong 101 and I discovered that learning the language
helped me to gain many insights into the culture as a bonus. The classes
were well attended by a wide range of people, and they were very
appreciative of the chance to learn some of the Hmong language.
Continuing in the tradition of selecting awesome HaSEAAC Officers,
Yeng Vang was elected President for the 2001-2002 academic year. I
recall that this was the busiest year ever in HaSEAAC’s entire history.
It was incredible how much the club accomplished that year under Yeng’s
leadership. The first Hmong Dinner and Entertainment event, “Taste of
Toj Roob (The Mountains),” was held in November. We were pleased to have
Ya Myyoufu Yang present again. The entertainment was largely provided by
the HaSEAAC members and included singing, dancing, playing of musical
instruments, and a fashion show. The food was Hmong food cooked entirely
by the HaSEAAC members as well.
Houa Vue Moua presented for the spring conference held in 2002, and
her topic was: “Hmong Religion and Cultural Values.” Houa is an
extraordinary person and speaker, and we were all so impressed by her
superlative presentation.
Another terrific HaSEAAC leader during this time was Yauo Yang.
Yauo’s brainstorm was to form a theater group, consisting of HaSEAAC
members. The group that was created was called the Hmong Tapestry. Yauo
wrote 4 plays on various topics, including Hmong folklore, the Vietnam
War, and racism. The Tapestry group performed these moving plays in many
schools in Wausau and Stevens Point. Hundreds of children, (along with
many teachers and other school staff), were entertained, informed, and
moved by these incredible dramas.
The ultimate triumph of Yeng’s year as HaSEAAC President was having
HaSEAAC receive the first time ever award and plaque from UW-SP for
“Student Organization of the Year”. This was a tremendous honor, and an
honor that was also exceedingly well deserved.
The 2002-2003 academic year brought in the next energetic President,
Tong Xiong. Tong continued the tradition of encouraging HaSEAAC members
to present on Hmong History and Culture. Now, however, the focus was on
going into UW-SP classrooms and sharing of their culture with college
students. Since this began, even more UW-SP professors have requested
that HaSEAAC come to speak to their students.
Under Tong’s guidance, the second “Taste of Toj Roob (The
Mountains),” was even more spectacular than the previous year. The
attendance was close to 250 people; the speaker, Dr. Kou Kevin Yang, was
great; the entertainment was fantastic; and the Hmong food was the best
ever. It was a very, very memorable event.
The HaSEAAC conference that year was entitled: “Hmong Past, Present,
and Future.” As always, the speakers were outstanding. Dr. Zha Blong
Xiong, a professor at the University of Minnesota, presented on the
topics of the Hmong history and the Hmong future. James Harris,
principal of Weston Elementary School, brought a portion of his amazing
Hmong artifacts to display. Mai Zong Vue, former president of Hmong
National Development, Inc, in Washington D.C., presented on the
critically important topic of “Hmong Gender Roles and Education”.
The year rounded out with HaSEAAC again offering Hmong language and
cultural classes at UWSP. This effort was spearheaded by Linda Moua and
Maichoua Moua, who were both deeply involved in the fund-raising
activities for HaSEAAC.
At the time I write this, it is early in the 2003-2004 academic year,
and Dianna Moua is our current HaSEAAC President. Dianna is a President
of many creative ideas, and she has many great plans for this year.
Dianna is beginning by having HaSEAAC host the first ever HaSEAAC Alumni
Reunion. This event will be held on October 18, 2003. We are all looking
forward to this exciting event.
Throughout this narrative of HaSEAAC's history I have been
identifying HaSEAAC's leaders. The officers have attended many
conferences and workshops to foster their skills and knowledge. In
addition to these wonderful and talented leaders, HaSEAAC’s success has
also been achieved as a result of all of the other dedicated and
hard-working officers and members participating in the club over many
years. HaSEAAC's history is a superb example of excellent, effective,
and efficient teamwork! I wish I could name all those people involved
because they all deserve credit for making HaSEAAC such a remarkable,
wonderful group. This year is the exception, but throughout most of its
history, HaSEAAC has been a small organization, numbering around 20
members per year. Nonetheless, the club has achieved much success and it
has hosted numerous noteworthy events.
At the current time, Semester I -- 2003, we have 120 SE Asian
students enrolled at UW-SP. Of these SE Asian students, 112 students are
Hmong; 61 are women, and 51 are men. This includes undergraduate,
graduate, and special students. This is the highest enrollment UWSP has
ever had for Hmong students. About 50 of the currently enrolled Hmong
students are involved in HaSEAAC during this semester. Of course, you do
not have to be Hmong to be part of HaSEAAC. Anyone and everyone with an
interest in Hmong and/or SE Asian issues and events are cordially
welcomed to join HaSEAAC.
In conclusion, it has been an honor and a privilege for me to have
served as HaSEAAC's Advisor since its beginning in 1987. It has been a
tremendously rewarding experience. I've enjoyed writing this History of
HaSEAAC as it brings back many good memories. But now, I'm looking
forward to the future of HaSEAAC because I know it will be a great
future with many good things in it.
For more information please contact:
Sue Clark Kubley: skubley@uwsp.edu (715)-346-3820
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