(gentle music) (speaking in foreign language) St.Louis River.

(gentle music) So what I said was, my name is Sawm Vang, which is my Hmong name.

And I said that I'm currently fishing on the St.Louis River.

I like nature.

Like now I'm fishing outside.

It's not like it's peaceful.

My folks, my parents, they were refugees from Laos, Thailand.

So they came over here late 70s, early 80s.

But growing up, you had your little packet of Hmong community.

I would say I am one of the fortunate Hmong people who's still in the 24s, that grew up with at least a sizable Hmong community to be able to speak my language with someone I know when I get back home from school or something like that.

But I don't know if you remember a Hmong Hunter shot and killed, I believe seven white hunters.

- Members of the Hmong community in the twin cities are sending their condolences to the hunters families.

They're also expressing their concern.

They will share the blame for what happened.

- I would say I got a little dicey.

I remember getting looks and stares just because am Hmong and that hunter was Hmong as well.

I do remember my dad talking about it, asking me, what did I think about it I do remember saying, yeah, it's sad but why am I getting looked down on?

Just because am Hmong too?

In high school, yeah, you keep to yourself, keep your head low.

Just try not to draw attention to yourself, that's kind of how I went about it.

Really, the only people I talked to was my cousins or my sisters, we talked about it.

We basically just concluded, yeah, it sucks.

What happened, sucks.

We just gotta know that we're gonna get a lot of attention just because we're here and there's not a lot of us here and obviously we're gonna get a lot of stares and all looks.

They're gonna ask us questions and then we just tell them hey, sure we're Hmong too but we don't do that.

(gentle music) So I'll say that that is a period that I remember vividly.

(gentle music) So obviously, my background computer engineering, I wanna bring that into what I do.

That's kinda how it led to Lego robotics.

That's kinda how I got introduced into working with kids.

My job title for the school district is Integration Specialist I am all for to science and math technology.

Right, so if I can share my love of science, math technology with somebody else, I'm all for like, if it's Lego robotics, yeah.

Lego robotics is the tool to show you that this stuff is awesome.

Like you can do it too, I love it, I'll do it.

We see kids learn, there's always this expression where a light bulb turns on when they finally see, oh, I get.

That expression just makes me proud.

It's just super cool to see.

When you see that they see it too, it's just like, okay, my job is done, onto the next one.

Although I love technology, science and stuff like that, right.

I'm also a big fisherman too.

Let's see, I've been fishing all my life.

For me, fishing is just a way to just be me.

So when I'm with my family, I speak Hmong English.

And then when I'm with friends or coworkers or colleagues, I speak English.

Here, I don't have to say anything at all.

I can just be quiet and just focus on myself.

I don't have two worlds clashing in my brain.

For me right now, fishing it's just fishing.

(gentle guitar music) - (announcer)Funding for intersections is brought to you by the arts and cultural heritage fund and the citizens of Minnesota.