User talk:Zootshaj

Heuh Yaung Heu is better known as "Hugh" or in his native Hmong (http://www.csp.edu/HmongCultureLanguage/hmong-facts.html ) culture as "Tseem Yaj Hawj" (cheng-yah-herh). He was born in Laos in the late 1960s. He is Hmong (a minority ethnic group from Laos, a Southeast Asian country). The country of Laos has officially changed its name to Lao People's Democratic Republic (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2770.htm ). He and his parents escaped the communist who took over Laos when the United States decided to pull out of the Vietnam War from 1961-1975 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/; http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/timeline.htm; http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index.html; http://www.landscaper.net/timelin.htm; http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamtimeline.htm). He and his parents walked from Laos in a month to live in a refugee camp in Thailand from 1975 to 1980. Prior to their permanent resettlement in the United States in the very early 1980s, their life in the refugee camp was like birds living in a cage. There was no freedom because it was very similar to the Nazi camp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps; http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144) that the German's military leaders under Hitler killed so many Jewish people. He had seen many Hmong refugees were shot by Thai army national guards and also numerous Hmong women were raped at the water wells when they went to get water for their families for cooking food at their thatch houses while living inside Ban Nam Yao refugee camp in Thailand. The refugee camp was also surrounded by high barbed wired fences made by the Hmong refugees who were forced by the Thai army national guards to work for free in which the Thai army national guards were paid by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Refugees) but because there was no UNHCR officials to watch, they made the Hmong and other refugees inside the camp to do the job for them and still get paid.

Heu's parents, siblings and he thought going to live in America meant paradise because life in the refugee camp was so miserable like birds living in a cage. Refugees would often talked almost everyday about going to live a foreign country and lose their cultural customs (traditional spiritual healing and medicinal plant medicine practices). But when they arrived in the United States, they found themselves were depending on public assistance while he and his siblings were attending public schools to succeed in their future. Heu's parents were farmers in Laos and had never been to school. Since his parents were farmers and raised livestock as well farmed to survive, they did not have the money to send any of their children to school while they were living in Laos. In other words, none of Heu's family members had never attended school prior to coming to America because his parents could not afford to send anyone of their children to a Laotian school and also needed their children to help them with the work at their farms too.

To succeed in America, Heu knew that they needed to have a good education and technical skills to get good paying jobs. He also learned that he needed to struggle to learn how to speak, read, and write in English to mainstream as well as to maintain his traditional Hmong cultural beliefs and spiritual practices to keep his ethnic identity alive.

Heu was lured to join the Boy Scouts of America when he saw the aerospace shuttle used by the Boy Scouts of America as an advertisement to recruit new Scouts. He served on every Scout leadership position ranged from a Scribe, Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader, Instructor, etc., all the way to a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, Leadership Corp, Assistant Scoutmaster, Unit Commissioner, and was three (3) merit badges and a service project before earning his Eagle Scout but his Scoutmaster embezzled the Scout troop's money before it died out. He became involved with community-based organizations and served on many nonprofit and private-for-profit organizations almost throughout his life as he was struggling to learn English.

He also became the first and still "probably" the only Hmong student who served as a 9th grade and A.S.B. (Associated Student Body) council Vice Presidents under a Caucasian female who was 9th grade President and A.S.B. Vice President under a Vietnamese young man as an A.S.B. President in the same year while they were attending John J. Montgomery Junior High School in the mid 1980s. He was also President of Youth Advisory Council in advocating for food change throughout his junior high school years and was a high school IB (International Baccalaureate) graduate in the late 1980s before he went on to attend and graduated from a CSU (California State University) with a B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree in Communication with an emphasis in Journalism and a Master of Education in Youth Development Leadership (Youth Studies) from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Heu is still the first and the “only” person in the first generation of his family’s history to ever get higher education and college degrees.

Heu believes that multicultural leadership as defined in Lyne (p. 218) is to enable school principals to address adversity within a schools setting through affirming cultural pluralism and education equity. In order for school leaders to help diverse students to understand multicultural issues in their schools, they need to conceptualize and engage their roles as multicultural leaders to serve the diverse populations in their schools and communities. School administrators and districts who value diversity usually hire teachers and staff from different social ethnic backgrounds and ways to integrate classroom curriculum which reflects multicultural ideas, music, literature, activities to help improve student in academic achievements, relate to the students’ families and support teachers to educate students to be caring, lifelong learners who live meaningful and connected lives.

Heu also thinks that higher educational institutions need to focus more courses on multicultural (diversity) issues during the students’ credential school years so they are well-prepared to deal with multicultural issues because America has become a very diverse ethnic nation. School administrators need to socialize the new refugee students how to mainstream into the American educational system when teaching them new English speaking, reading and writing skills. For example, when his siblings and he went to school when they came to America for permanent refugee resettlement they didn’t know how to eat American foods that were cooked at (by) their school cafeterias. They also didn’t know how to dress clothes properly when they went to school and play games during recess. They had the potential to learn English and be as successful as mainstream American children but they just needed little help in adjusting to American way of life. He also believes that successful multicultural programs require a commitment from leadership, which might consist of a department chair, school principal, or district superintendent. Plans for school- or district-wide multicultural education programs should be comprehensive, focused and well-publicized.

Some key considerations in the multicultural dynamics at an institution are applying knowledge about cultural differences through (1) Human Relations Skills (students participate in activities on self-awareness, self-esteem, interpersonal communication, and understanding group dynamics); (2) Cultural Self Awareness (students conduct research on their personal culture, family history, or community); (3) Cross Cultural Experience (historical and cultural information in the booklets is made personal through dialogue and exchange with students and adults from different ethnic groups); (4) multicultural learning activities are most effective for learners when they (a) offer students opportunities to observe/participate in the affairs of the community, (b) engage students directly and actively in learning, (c) relate directly to the concerns of the students, (d) rely on a broad range of instructional materials, (e) offer a scope and sequence that is developmentally based, (f) evaluate and document what has been learned using tests, demonstrations, surveys and other assessment methods (http://www.ericdigests.org/pre9218/secondary.htm; http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/developing.htm). Multi-cultural leadership helps people to help understand diversity issues and learns to be more tolerant with people of other cultures as well respect and promote the values and practices of all cultures. He is a multicultural communication and multicultural promoter because if this is implemented in all school and educational agencies' curriculums, he is a firm believer that we might be able to reduce racial prejudice and discrimination.

References

Lyne, L. S. (1999). A Cross Section of Educational Research: Journal Articles for Discussion and Evaluation. Los Angeles, CA.: Pyrczak Publishing, p. 218-228.

http://www.csp.edu/HmongCultureLanguage/hmong-facts.html, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Refugees, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/timeline.htm, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/developing.htm, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/secondary.htm, Retrieved November 8, 2009

http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamtimeline.htm, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.landscaper.net/timelin.htm, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index.html, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2770.htm, Retrieved February 16, 2011

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144, Retrieved February 16, 2011