Programs
Learn about inspiring stories of change and hope from our Non-profit Organization and how we impact communities through our work.
Our Impact
The impacts we have made in our community
Join us in strengthening language preservation, empowering educators, and inspiring cultural pride within the Hmong community. With a network of over 500 Hmong professionals, we are dedicated to creating lasting change, fostering hope, and ensuring our heritage thrives for generations. Together, we can build a stronger future.
Join Us Where It Matters
Together, we can uplift and be a part of the solution to save the Hmong language from dying in decades to come. Every contribution ensures the continuation of our vital work.
Inspiring Stories of Empowerment
Discover the remarkable journeys of growth and unity within the Hmong community through MN Zej Zog. Join us in making a meaningful impact today.
NATIONAL INITIATIVES
Driving efforts to revitalize Hmong language and culture through education and collaboration with educators across the U.S.
Teaching Resources for Hmong Language Teachers
The National Hmong Educators Coalition is a network of Hmong language, literacy, and culture teachers from K-12 and higher education across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California. Partnering with UW-Whitewater’s College of Education, the coalition creates culturally sustaining teaching resources that connect schools with the Hmong community. Collaborating with youth, elders, artists, and community members, the coalition developed the Hmong Language Resource Hub, offering curriculum materials, lesson plans, and activities to preserve Hmong heritage and identity.
These resources empower educators to implement relevant teaching practices while helping students connect with their heritage. The coalition also supports curriculum development and innovative teaching methods to enrich Hmong language education. Learn more about the coalition and its resources by visiting their website.
Critical Hmong Educational Studies
Critical HMoob Education Studies (CHMES) is a transdisciplinary sub-field of Critical HMoob (Hmong/Mong) Studies that focuses on decolonial, antiracist, anti-oppression research on HMoob and education-broadly defined. The scholars in this network produce and collaborate on various projects about historical and contemporary issues regarding teaching and learning with and by the HMoob community.
These research studies include public scholarships, peer-reviewed articles, encyclopedias, action-based projects, podcasts, blog posts, etc. This CHMES scholarship includes works about various topics including Hmong Studies courses, pedagogies, methodologies on education research, and empirical studies about informal education, K-16 education, curricula development, and schooling practices and policies. Educators, students, researchers, and the general public can learn more about these scholars and their work by connecting with us at programs@mnzejzog.org
STATEWIDE INITIATIVES
Empowering Hmong educators in Minnesota with mentorship, professional development, and tools to shape educational growth.
MN Hmong Educators Coalition
The Minnesota Hmong Educators Coalition (MHEC) unites Hmong educators to foster professional growth, collaborative learning, and advocacy. By providing support networks and addressing educational concerns from elementary to post-secondary levels, MHEC ensures that state and local educational dialogues reflect the priorities of the Hmong community in Minnesota.
Connect with us at mhecinspires@gmail.com
Pathways to Hmong language and Less Commonly Taught Language
Mn Zej Zog has partnered with Concordia University in Moorhead to support a cohort of Hmong language and culture teachers in earning K-12 World Language & Cultures teaching licenses and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree, all fully funded through state grants. To learn more about this program, visit Concordia University’s World Language Instruction page or connect with us at programs@mnzejzog.org
MHEC Mentorship Program
MN Hmong Educators Coalition mentorship program offers support for Less Commonly Taught Language Educators, such as Hmong, Karen, Korean, and Somali. The goals of the mentorship program is to bring awareness of marginalized BIPOC communities, educational disparities of these communities, empower social justice through an equity lens, provide transformative professional development opportunities for the longevity of the profession, and take language programs like Hmong and other Less Commonly Taught Language Programs to the next level for sustainability with support from school administrators.
Connect with Pang at ED@mnzejzog.org
Hmong RPA Standardization Project
MN Zej Zog has been awarded a two year grant (2024-2026) to standardize the Hmong Roman Popular Alphabet writing language in MN. In collaboration with Prek-Higher Educational Institutions and community experts, the team has a comprehensive process, adopting a unified and standardized Latin alphabet form of the Hmong RPA writing system that is inclusive, equitable, and pertinent to the current Hmong context in Minnesota.
This activity is made possible by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
Follow the project at: https://www.hmongrpaproject.com/
Connect with Sue at sue@mnzejzog.org
LOCAL INITIATIVES
Fostering community connection through arts, cultural events, youth programs, and grassroots collaborations.
Brooklyns Hmong New Year
The City of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center is home to the second largest Hmong population in Minnesota, following St. Paul. This vibrant and diverse community plays a vital role in shaping the culture and spirit of the area.
Join us for an extraordinary collaboration between the cities, local nonprofits, and school districts as we come together to honor and celebrate the rich heritage, traditions, and contributions of the Hmong community. Enjoy a day filled with cultural performances, engaging activities, delicious food, and meaningful connections that showcase the beauty of unity and shared pride.
This celebration is not just an event—it’s a reflection of the community’s strength and diversity.
Empowering to Thrive: Fostering Hmong Brotherhood
MN Zej Zog in partnership with community members from various professional backgrounds are inspired to create a conference for HMoob males to share their stories and lived experiences in a way that promotes communication, support, empowerment, and connection.
The conference’s theme centralizes on empowering HMoob males to thrive and succeed through workshops that focuses on exploring identity, sociocultural impact, and role model influences. Our purpose is to also explore academic and non-traditional pathways to success and build confidence to overcome challenges along the way. We believe that positive HMoob male narratives, role models, and healthy relationships are essential in helping one develop, grow, and lead. In 2024, Empowering to Thrive shifted to micro-retreats as another form to work with HMoob males allowing for more in depth work.
Hmong Elderly Women Portrait Projects
The goal of our portrait project is to create empowering, legacy images of the elder women of the Hmong community, to celebrate their lives and their journey to Minnesota. We are also providing a safe space for the elders to tell their stories, so their uniquely Minnesotan histories may be heard and passed on for the benefit of families and students in the local Hmong community as well as all Minnesotans. As an added benefit, our public showings through 2025 will coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Hmong immigration to the state. This activity is made possible by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
Connect with Pang at ed@mnzejzog.org
Arts Programming
LEGO: Hmong Bricks is dedicated to celebrating Hmong culture through LEGO creations. Its founder, Greg Rhodes, has built LEGO versions of a paaj ntaub (story cloth) and the Hmong New Year. He’s even created one-of-a-kind Hmong minifigures with dozens of traditional outfits. His work had been featured on Fox9 News, Kare11 News, and 3 Hmong TV, as well as national and local brick conventions. In partnership with MZZ, Hmong Bricks has hosted Storybuilding Workshops that encourage kids, parents, and grandparents to build their Hmong story with LEGO bricks.
Student Center Learning (C.L.I.M.B.)
CLIMB High Achievers, LLC (Culture, Leadership, Identity, Motivate, Build) was created in response to the cultural and societal challenges many Hmong youths were facing in 2007. CLIMB started as an afterschool program aimed to foster culturally specific leadership skills for underprivileged Hmong youths. It has since developed into something much bigger.
The program has evolved on its principles and modalities within the personal growth and development arena focused on student-centered learning in the area of transformation of mindsets and beliefs that don’t serve an individual, combined with cultural relevance, trauma-informed therapy and leadership development. This work enhanced in transforming educators nationwide and hundreds of students locally with innovative ways of engaging students by helping teachers find their greater purpose and overcoming obstacles, then using the tools and process to shift students’ mindsets.
Cim Cia Project
The Cim Cia (Remember) Project is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Hmong American veterans and their contributions. Through storytelling and memento gathering, we aim to honor the lives of Hmong veterans, fallen soldiers, and the women who contributed to the war effort. By documenting these powerful narratives, we provide a space for families to share their stories, ensuring that their voices and experiences are preserved for future generations.
This initiative, funded by the National Cemetery Administration, is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Department of Curriculum & Instruction and MN Zej Zog’s National Coalition of Hmong Educators. The project will culminate in educational tools for K-12 classrooms, leveraging the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) to inspire learning about history, service, and cultural heritage. Through this work, we aim to foster understanding and recognition of the vital role Hmong Americans played in shaping history, creating a meaningful connection between their legacy and communities today.
Connect with Liseng at xiongl@uww.edu
Get Involved / Txhawb Nqas
Support our cause for lasting impact
Join us in preserving Hmong culture and empowering our community. Whether through your time, resources, or advocacy, your involvement helps create lasting change for future generations.