Hmong tutor program provides students with an alternative

University students who are Hmong Americans, are helping these Hmong refugee students with their English and their homework. Because of the language problem, they are having trouble with their school studies. DP

BY Holly Miller

mndaily.com: Being able to read and comprehend her social studies homework is only a small part of the reason 10th-grader Kao Vang wants to learn English faster.

A Hmong refugee from Thailand, Vang and 15,000 others like her arrived in the United States beginning in 2004, 5,000 of them making a home in Minnesota, and 1,000 in Hennepin County.

Learning English not only means doing better on homework, but helping her parents, who do not speak English, Vang said.

Vang received help with English and homework Sunday evening by taking part in the Hmong tutoring program provided by the Hmong Minnesota Student Association student group and the University’s Center for Urban & Regional Affairs.

The 20 junior high and high school students involved in the program live in north Minneapolis but attend the Hopkins School District.

They faced violence and bullying while attending schools in north Minneapolis as well as segregation from mainstream English speaking classes, said Jay Clark, the tutoring programs organizer with CURA.

When administration told them they would have to continue going to classes taught mostly in Hmong, some students banded together and transferred to the Hopkins district through the “Choice Is Yours” program, which allows low-income Minneapolis students to enroll in neighboring suburban school districts, Clark said.

Clark said 55 Hmong students ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade now attend Hopkins schools, but many found school to be more difficult when they got there.

“The classes are in English, which in the long-term is really great,” he said, “but, in the short-term is very hard.”
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