Amber Ault, director of diversity at UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy, wants to set an example for future pharmacists by learning the Hmong language and cultural practices using traditional herbal medicine, which could interact negatively with modern drugs.
Katy France, who graduated from UW-Madison’s Law School on Friday and plans to work as a public defender, sees a need for lawyers who can communicate with Hmong defendants. Sarah Allen, who teaches English as a second language in the West Allis School District, is striving to better connect with her Hmong students and their families. And Kazoua Xiong, a student at St. Olaf College, yearns to know more about her Hmong heritage.
For the past two months, they and other students and educators spent four and a half hours a day, five days a week, studying Hmong culture and language at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) at UW-Madison.