About Me

My father was a veteran of the Vietnam War or so called the “Secret War”.  In 1978, my parents fled the communist regime after the collapse of the Kingdom of Lan Xang in 1975.  Wounded in battle, his left leg was crippled; his femur and tibia fused together at the knee shaping it like a boomerang.  After many days of traveling with my mother pregnant and ready to give labor and my father with his crutches made from a tree branch engraving into his armpit, he grew very ill.  They sought refuge in a little village by the countryside, in the mountain tops of Laos called Phonton. 

In that small village my parents sought salvation from a young Lao couple exchanging their labor for their left over scraps and shelter from their farm shed.  On an overcast and windy Monday in October, I was born.  The young Lao couple was named my god parents and got the honor to name me.  My name is Asachang Lee.  It means miracle in Laotian.  A couple of months later, my parents fled from that small village and crossed the Mekong River into Thailand to seek the refugee camps established by the United Nation.

I was very fortunate crossing the Mekong River and escaping the communist regime soldiers as an infant.  Many infants did not make it through this time of escape.  Many of the infants were silence by opium.  Some were killed by over dosage while others became mentally challenged.

In the refugee camps of Thailand, my parents waited for other families in different countries to sponsor them.  Finally in 1980, my parents were blessed by a Christian family in Rochester, Minnesota, USA who sponsored us.  At the end of the year in 1980, my family relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota to be closer with other relatives and family members.

Without an education and the three seasons that the Mid-West had to offer, it was hard for my parents to get by doing only what they knew best: farm.  They were forced into working in factories and minimum wage jobs.   After a couple years in the Mid-West my parents migrated along with many other Hmong families to Fresno, California to farm.

Both of my parents were limited in English and did not go to school themselves or had no educational background. I had no support at home with my school.  As I began my grammar school years, I was classified and grouped with the English Learner.  Most of the time, I was my parents voice and interpreter.  The only support or advice that my parents could give me was: to study hard and stay in school.

At one point in my life, I was so ashamed of who I was because of the stereotypes of Hmong families of having big families, being lazy, and on government assistance.  I tried to fit in with the “in-crowd” and isolated myself with other ethnicity to be away from my people.  I begun to disclaim that I was Hmong.  With my light complexion and my last name, I easily blended in as a Chinese ethnic group.

As I entered intermediate school, my parents bought a small ranch out in Sanger, California.  This was where I finished off grade school.  As I was going through grade school in the small town of Sanger, the minority was the majority, majority was the minority, and with a two percent representation of Asians, there was no role model.  I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. The only thought was of not having the same life as my parents.

My parents wanted me to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, so I spent two summers during my high school at the University of California, Davis in a summer program.  I did not like what I was doing so I had no sense of direction as to what I wanted to do. I only knew that I must go to college if I wanted a better life then my parents.  After graduating high school and working as a grocery store clerk for minimum wage all summer, I realized that I had to go to college or I would be working as a grocery store clerk for the rest of my life.  I finally applied for school at Fresno City College.

After spending two semesters at Fresno City College, I enrolled in an Asian American study class.  In that class I learned that many minority and Asians went through the same struggles that I went through growing up.  From there, I went back to search my roots as to whom I was.

As I went back and searched for my identity, I got the opportunity to work with the United States Corps of Engineer.  With the Corps of Engineer, I worked as a water safety outreach ranger.  I went out to many schools in the Central Valley and talked about water safety.  It was through the outreach that I found my passion to go into teaching.  It was not the teaching but the intrinsic feeling I got from seeing that a child has walked away learning something.    

I went on to receive my Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies from California State University, Fresno in 2002 and my teaching credential in 2004.   I've been teaching ever since.

As I worked with students, this allowed for me to see such young and potential minds which without guidance will go to waste.  This opened up my eyes that if I wanted to do more to help students prepare for tomorrow’s society and be college and career ready, I had to continued my quest in education to get my master. I received my Master's in Counseling from National University in 2009.