Bao Xiong Awarded New UWM Hmong Scholarship

MILWAUKEE-- The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education has awarded its first Hmong leadership scholarship to Bao (Vickie) Xiong.

Xiong, an elementary education major with minors in bilingual education and mathematics, expects to receive her degree in 2004.

Ron Podeschi, a professor emeritus in the School of Education's Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies, initiated the scholarship. Podeschi, who has written extensively about Hmong education and culture, has strong ties to the Wisconsin Hmong community.

The scholarship is targeted to Wisconsin Hmong Americans who will provide future leadership in schools, adult education and community youth services.

Xiong, a Milwaukee Public Schools paraprofessional, teaches English as a second language at the Academy for Accelerated Learning. She works 30 hours a week while attending UWM full time and raising two daughters, ages 5 and 3.

"I'm very busy, but I like what I am doing," says Xiong. "I like helping students to understand more about themselves and about their cultures." At the academy, she works with reading students who come from diverse language backgrounds, including Spanish, Laotian, and Arabic as well as Hmong.

Xiong moved to the United States with her family when she was 2-years-old. The family lived in Kansas and California before moving to Milwaukee, where Xiong graduated from South Milwaukee High School.

Her father, who speaks Hmong, Thai, Laotian and English, helped inspire Xiong's interest in languages. She took a while to decide on a major at UWM, which is why she has enough credits to be a senior though she doesn't graduate for two more years. When she received her certification to work as a paraprofessional teaching English as a second language, she found her true career. "I loved it," she says simply.

"The scholarship is designed to encourage the new generation of Hmong students to become educators and leaders," says Dao Vang, coordinator of Southeast Asian Student Academic Services at UWM.

Although traditional Hmong culture did not emphasize a written language or formal education, Hmong families have strongly encouraged their children to succeed in school in the U.S., says Vang. UWM currently has 334 Hmong students, with 25 in the School of Education.

"I want to be a role model for my Hmong students," says Xiong. "I very much want to be an influence in their education and their lives."

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