Listen: For Meet The Need, Day 14 of 50, we head to the South Side and Wisconsin's first Hmong Charter School, The Hmong American Peace Academy. In the past 10 years, Milwaukee has seen a large influx of Hmong into the city, whether they're new refuges or moving from other parts of the state. Welcoming this new population into the city provides both exciting opportunities and new challenges -- meeting the educational needs of this new community fits under both headers. For a population of new immigrants and refuges, the need for education is even clearer than it is for the native born population. They find themselves in a new culture with a radically different economy, and neither seem penetrable without a quality education. So what should that education look like? To answer that question, the Hmong American Peace Academy infuses their curriculum with traditional Hmong culture and American values. Principal and Executive Director Chris Her-Xiong, on how her school meets the needs of the Hmong community:
-To accommodate a growing Hmong population, the Hmong American Peace Academy was formed: