Pae Naw Say doesn’t have many stories to tell about Thailand. “I was only four years old when we left… I don’t know much about the camp because my family and I don’t talk much about it,” she says. She does recall the day she left Thailand. “I remember looking back at my passport photo when I came to the United States, I looked rough,” says Say. There are lingering reminders. “The smell of gasoline brings me back to the time when we were boarding the plane.”
Say is from a small group of people of Karen (pronounced Kah-Ren) descent who came to Minnesota from a refugee camp in Thailand, near the Myanmar border. The group first arrived in the U.S. in 2004. Now the largest concentrated population of the Karen people, nearly 20,000 strong, live in the Twin Cities.
Say was in kindergarten when she felt a warm welcome to Minnesota. Her teachers created ethnic nights, where students came to school wearing their traditional clothing. The students were able to show off their culture and all could celebrate the variety on display. Fast forward many years and Say, like many young people in the Karen community, are now successful college students.
Life at UMD
Say is a third-year student with a double major in Marketing and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is also involved in student activities such as the human resource leadership board of Hmong Living in Unity and Balance (HLUB, pronounced Ha-Lou.). This organization has made a huge impact on Say. She mentions that she had the most fun creating posters as well as setting up Halloween events each year.
HLUB has been a significant back bone to Say's marketing and leadership experience. "I worked with highly driven and intelligent Asian individuals and through that program, I found some lifelong friends and a community that has encouraged me to stay at UMD," says Say. "One of the main reasons why I'm still here is because of the friends I've made here." Read More