Hmong Student Organization

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Food, entertainment and a keynote speaker will highlight Hmong Night 7 p.m. March 15 in Atwood Memorial Center Ballroom.

The theme of the 2008 celebration is “Superstitions.” The event will provide opportunities to learn about superstitions of the Hmong culture. The Hmong are an ethnic minority in China and Southeast Asian countries such as Laos and Vietnam. Hmong began immigrating to the United States in 1975 in the wake of the American military withdrawal from Southeast Asia.

The keynote speaker is Nai Christopher Lo, a staff member at the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul. Collectively, St. Paul and Minneapolis are considered the Hmong capital of the U.S. because of their large Hmong-American populations.

Lo works in the Building Bridges program, which provides educational presentations about the Hmong refugee experience, the Hmong refugee camps in Thailand and Hmong contributions in the United States.

Tickets, which available at the door, are $3 for St. Cloud State students and $5 for faculty and community members.

The event is sponsored by the Hmong Student Organization (HSO). For additional information, call (651) 208-0534 or e-mail hmong@stcloudstate.edu.

Don’t miss our annual Hmong Night event at St. Cloud State University hosted by the Hmong Student Organization.

Any questions please contact:
Charlie Thao (HSO President)
thch0502@stcloudstate.edu
(651) 792-6963

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A Hmong scholar from Australia will speak about the “Origins of the Hmong People” 12:30 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Atwood Memorial Center Theatre.

Gary Yia Lee is a scholar-in-residence at Concordia University’s Center for Hmong Studies in St. Paul. He has taught at universities in Australia and served as a senior liaison officer with the Ethnic Affairs Commission in New South Wales, Australia. He also worked as a bilingual welfare service coordinator with the Cabramatta Community Centre in Sydney.

Lee was born in Laos. He left his war-torn homeland in 1965 to finish high school in Australia. He studied social work at the University of New South Wales and earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Sydney.

Lee is the editor of the Lao Studies Review for the Lao Studies Society. He has been a referee for the Journal of Asian and Pacific Migration (Quezon City, Philippines) and the International Review of Migration (New York City). He is the author of novels and scholarly articles.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Hmong Student Organization and the Multicultural Resource Center.

For more information, contact Charlee Thao at 651-792-6963.

To post comments, you must first register an account; register users can post unlimited comments. In addition, all register users can create unlimited posts, but only authorized users can create and publish new posts. If you wish to publish a post please contact HSO webmaster for authorization. When creating a post, you can include images, videos, audios, and even YouTube videos.

For those of you who are FaceBook junkies, you can link a post on myHSO to your FaceBook account by clicking on the Share on Facebook link.

Future features for myHSO.net:

• Executive Board Members Page
• Members Page w/ picture, name, year, major, minor, etc.
• Alumni Page
• Minutes (Meeting Overviews) Page
• Events Calendar
• Online Event Sign-Up
• Student and Non-Student Mailing List
• Discussion Forum
• Digitize HSO Scrapbooks
• Live over the internet feeds of HSO meetings

Any suggestions for layout and features are welcome.

Questions please contact:
Yeng Vang (HSO Webmaster)
vaye0601@stcloudstate.edu

Bring your friends and roommates, everyone is welcome!

Date: Monday, September 10th
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Building: Atwood Memorial Center
Room: Lady Slipper

Any questions please contact:
Charlie Thao (HSO President)
thch0502@stcloudstate.edu
(651) 792-6963

The video is of Solomon Lo and Steven Vang at St. Cloud State Hmong Night 2007. The song was written and played by Steven.

This is a test of a YouTube video post.

To post a YouTube video just copy the url of the YouTube video you are watching and put it in your blog like this:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=3bNkFTygENU]

Nine SCSU cultural organizations met with Wanda Overland, vice president of Student Life and Development, and Matt Trombley, Center for Student Organizations and Leadership Development, Wednesday with the purpose of recapping the year and addressing concerns with Student Government.

Of the concerns expressed, the most pressing in the opinions of many groups in attendance was the consistent cutting of their budget.

These budget cuts, according to several of the groups, make it very difficult to put on the various activities and events hosted by these organizations. The organizations said this is damaging to the campus, because these events are used to educate the public about different cultures.

In addition to budget cuts, three organizations in particular, Hmong Student Organization (HSO), Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) and Asian Student Association (ASA), expressed their dissatisfaction with the budget application process. Continue Reading…

March is Women’s History Month in the United States. The SCSU Women’s Center and numerous co-sponsors will present speakers within “Generations of Women Moving History Forward.”

Topics cover issues and events including the 30th anniversary of the National Women’s Conference in Houston, Muslim family feminism and Hmong women’s leadership.

But Women’s History Month is not the only celebration of women during the month. Continue Reading…

The Hmong Student Organization celebrated their cultural night 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Atwood Ballroom with many SCSU students and people from the local and Hmong community.

The theme was “Dab Neeg Hmoob,” which means “Hmong Folktales.” The program included a welcome speech by Dr. Dia Cha, Hmong Student Organization (HSO) adviser and a speech from Mai Neng Moua, a guest speaker, storytelling, food, fashion shows, songs and dances.

Punctuality was a theme during the night, as everything was done on the time. The HSO started the program with the welcome speech and a speech from the guest speaker and then they were on to their folktales.

There was also a vendor of Hmong items and people enjoyed looking at handicrafts. The food was traditional, offering a wide variety and audience members raved over the desserts.

The program was well-organized and the play provided information on the culture. The folktales took attendees to the past by telling the story of a time when animals could talk.

“We have a play on folk lorries, dances, music and food,” said Nchai Khang, HSO president. “We have been doing cultural nights since 1994; as soon as Continue Reading…

Life has been a saga for Dia Cha and her people.

Her Hmong ancestors came from ancient China. Threatened, they resettled in Southeast Asia. Cha’s own life took her from her home in Laos to Thailand as a refugee. Today, she is a professor at SCSU.

Wednesday, Cha took time to share her personal story with students in Atwood. She spoke of the hard times her people endured, and continue to endure, with a soft voice but a strong and inspiring spirit.

The Hmong trace their origins 5,000 years ago to China. After wars and persecution, they migrated through harsh conditions to the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma, where they were able to live in accordance with their culture. Continue Reading…