By Wendi Wheeler ’06

Walk past the student lounge in Christensen Center on any given afternoon, and it becomes clear that Asian American students make up a sizeable portion of the Augsburg student body. The lounge is a popular hangout for students—a place for them to study, relax, and connect with each other.

To hear some stories of Asian American students at Augsburg, attend the Augsburg Theater Department production of Inside Out. In collaboration with Mu Performing Arts and Pan Asian Student Services, Augsburg will present Inside Out Nov. 18-20.

Inside Out was created and is directed by Rick Shiomi, artistic director of Mu Performing Arts of St. Paul, Minn. The project began when Shiomi interviewed several Asian American students at Augsburg. Based on the interviews, Shiomi developed a series of short scenes that reflect their experiences. The performance also includes additional scenes created by students.

Shiomi said this project is part of Mu’s outreach programming and a continuation of a longstanding relationship with Augsburg. “In the last three or four years, the number and profile of Asian American students [at Augsburg] has been growing rapidly,” Shiomi said. “We wanted to create a project that would engage some of those students in the theatrical process, to understand that their stories are important, to see that they can be presented on stage, and to get some experience on stage.”

In fact, the number of students in the undergraduate day program who identify as Asian American has grown from 6 percent in 2008 to 8.2 percent in 2011. According to Penh Lo, director of Pan Asian student services, the largest percentage of students are Hmong American (41 percent) followed by Vietnamese, Korean, and Laotian. Overall, 14 different cultures are represented in the Asian American student population at Augsburg.

Shiomi said he has been impressed with the enthusiasm of the cast members and with the wide range of experiences they worked with in the production. “Certainly there are the challenges of the immigrant experience, but there are a whole number of issues that came into play in this production, like dealing with mixed race parents, dealing with racism, and establishing an identity.”

Lo believes allowing students to tell their stories is a powerful way to connect them to each other. “Whether the stories are similar or different, there is a connection. It is people telling others, ‘This is how I came to be,'” he said.

One of the actors is Mai Choua “MC” Thao ’11 [above right], a business major and a Hmong woman who said she has always had a passion for acting. “What I have been stressing to my friends is that not a lot of Asian Americans are out there telling stories about their personal lives,” she said. “This will be a good way for others to hear the voices of the everyday struggles that Asian American students are going through.”

This production is part of the Theater Department’s move to explore ways to engage the entire campus community and to establish relationships with Cedar-Riverside neighborhood organizations. The department has created a statement expressing its intention to “engage with our diverse campus community in regards to the representation of culture, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, religion, disability, and age on and off stage.”

Performances are November 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. and November 20 at 3 p.m. Go to the Theater website for tickets.

Photo by Stephen Geffre

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“The thing I appreciate about Jenny is that we can relate to each other. Our families are similar and she understands me. I don’t think another mentor would fully comprehend my life like Jenny does,” Thao said. Both are Hmong women who come from large families, and both have experienced the challenges of living in a bi-cultural world.

Thao said she feels as though Yang is her “devil’s advocate,” challenging her to define her goals. “We talk about what I want in my life and my plans for graduate school,” Thao said, “and she asks me what I really want in life.” Thao also said that she knows she can reach Yang at any time and she always feels welcome to talk with her mentor.

Scholastic Connections is a scholarship and mentorship program for high-achieving undergraduate students of color. The program is designed to assist students succeed in completing their undergraduate degree and prepare them to be engaged, successful citizens of the world on graduation by facilitating career development and planning.

The following is Yang’s reflection on her relationship with Thao and her experience as a Scholastic Connections mentor. Yang and Thao joined the other Scholastic Connections scholars and mentors for the 2011 gala on Friday, Sept. 16 at Augsburg.

Scholastic Connections to me is the ideal program to help retain and engage students of color because it has two components that are important to help a student succeed and graduate: scholarship money and self-discovery and identity formation to find their life passion.

When Cindy Peterson, the director of Scholastic Connections, approached me to serve as mentor, I felt honored, but I hesitated. The intention of the program is to connect current students with an Augsburg alum, and I told Cindy that I did not feel right accepting to serve as a mentor, because I did not graduate from Augsburg. Eventually Cindy convinced to serve a mentor, and I am so happy that I accepted the invitation.

When I found out that I would serve as a mentor to Mai Choua Thao or MC, I knew that we would be a good fit. I wanted to get to know MC, not just as student but also as a person. I felt honored to mentor a young talented Hmong woman, and help her navigate a bi-cultural world. We are both Hmong women, and I was in the same shoes as MC 10 years ago as I explored who I was, who I wanted to be, how to hold on to my cultural roots as a Hmong person, and how to learn the skills I needed to function in the mainstream world. I knew that through this mentoring relationship, I would learn from MC as much as she could gain knowledge from me.

Through this relationship, MC and I talk a lot about our cultural identity as Hmong women and family expectations, and the balance of a career versus our vocation and purpose in life. I am reminded through our conversations that the challenges, struggles, and expectations for children with parents who are former refugees and immigrants have not changed much from the time that I went to college. Often we are the caretakers, and we help our parents financially. It is not easy to be a student, and to have so many responsibilities at home, but MC has learned the art of balancing the best of both worlds.

As a mentor, I do not claim to know everything nor do I have the answers to everything, but I told MC that I will challenge her, provide resources, and be there for her if she wants to vent, celebrate good news, or share disappointments. I am proud of all her accomplishments here at Augsburg, and outside of Augsburg. I believe MC will achieve her dreams and goals, and my role as a mentor is only a piece of the puzzle to what she will do next after Augsburg. I am so grateful to be part of Scholastic Connections as a staff member, and I’m proud of being MC’s mentor.

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