The Hmong Student Association at Berkeley (HSAB) is a student-initiated service group established in 2008 with the mission to promote higher education and cultural understanding of the Hmong community. A majority of the members in HSAB come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and, therefore, it is imperative that we, HSAB, continue to lift our communities as we climb. HSAB understands that the college application process is complicated and sometimes even an unfamiliar process. To amplify Hmong representation in higher education, HSAB will be piloting its first “Txhawb Nqa” mentorship program in the 2018-2019 academic school year. Inspired by Stanford’s HSU “Shine” project, the Txhawb Nqa program aims to support, but is not limited to, academically-determined Hmong-identifying rising seniors with navigating the college application process. More importantly, the program aims to build a lasting relationship between participants and college mentors.
All rising high school seniors in California are eligible to apply. Participants from various academic backgrounds are encouraged to apply, especially if planning on applying to University of California (UC) colleges and/or colleges using the Common Application (Stanford, Dartmouth, Purdue, etc.). Selected participants of this mentorship program will have the opportunity to be paired up with a HSAB college student as a mentor. If you are accepted into the program you and your college mentor will be committed to working through, but not limited to: identifying college(s) of interest, college applications and essay prompts, scholarship applications, FAFSA, advice on time management, etc. This mentorship program will be conducted on a virtual communication basis whether that is via Google Suite/Drive, emailing, phone/video calls, or any alternative method that will best work between the the participant and the college mentor.
Check out our inaugural cohort of mentors for 22 mentees by following the link below!