In 2002, 150 Khmer students enrolled at Fresno State University. In the fall of 2022, 96 Khmer students have enrolled.
“I think it’s very important for us to recognize that we are here. [made invisible] Thanks to the numbers,” said Varaxy Yi Borromeo, assistant professor at the Kremen School of Education and Human Development.
Borromeo spoke about the Khmer experience at Fresno State University in “Neither Here nor There: Khmer Reflections on Attribution and Presence at Fresno State University,” held on October 12 in Room 3212 of the Library. I was one of four panelists.
Hosted by the Center for Cross-Cultural Gender (CCGC) Asia Pacific American Programs and Services, the event was announced as the second in a series of lunches and learning.
According to the event description, Lunch and Learn is an annual series hosted by CCGC that invites keynote Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) speakers to share their experiences of “belonging and becoming” in higher education. intended to be shared.
“Often it’s because how many people, right? Who? [are] What is the largest group on this campus? So a small number of participants are often not seen to the level they should be,” Borromeo said.
Borromeo was joined by panelist Chantrea Samuel Chheng, a senior in psychology with a minor in Asian American Studies. She’s Vanna Nauk, a graduate of Fresno State University and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Program. and Melissa Tav, Communications Her Specialist at the University of Health and Human Services.
Nauk and Borromeo opened the panel with a short presentation on the history of the Khmer people, discussing the Khmer Golden Age from 1945 to 1975, when Cambodia gained independence from France and grew into a prosperous empire.
After the genocide began in Cambodia in 1970, killing about two million Khmers out of a population of eight million, Nauk said many Khmers lost their memories. This was followed by a period of “exile”.
“When you hear the word exile, it sounds extreme, but I don’t think the Khmer people, especially those born here, are aware that our family came here in exile,” Nauk said. I was. “I mean, I came here because I had no choice.”
This “trauma”, which has affected generations of Khmer people, is important for recognizing the history behind the Khmer diaspora, Borromeo said.
“And we bring this to you to emphasize that we are not just genocide and trauma. [from] that. We are also the empire that came before us, and the diaspora here are trying to determine where we go in the future for our people,” Borromeo said.
For Chen, who entered Fresno State University as a student, it was a rewarding experience. He said he doesn’t know where he belongs.
After meeting Khmer students and other Southeast Asian students, Chen said he saw them as “brothers and sisters” and helped them overcome the feeling of being invisible.
“We are all from war times and many of us come from low-income families.”
He said. “So it’s no mistake that we come together to share the same experience. Our stories are all different, but that’s what makes us unique as people.”
Tav shared Chen’s feelings of invisibility when she first entered Fresno State University, often saying that she was “the only Asian in the room.”
“Being the only Khmer or Southeast Asian in the room was always something I was very used to,” she said.
After participating in a program where she met many AAPI individuals in higher education in 2018, Tav finally felt recognized and expanded her business further at Fresno State University, meeting people like her at the college level. He said he made it a personal goal.
Fresno State University is an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Service Agency (AANAAPISI) and will receive $1.2 million in grants to support AAPI Criminology students in May 2022 I was. Borromeo said this is an opportunity for the university to invest more in supporting Southeast Asian American and Khmer students.
“We’ll have to look at some numbers. [but] I think so [California State University] The system is … beginning to recognize Southeast Asian American students as an “underrepresented minority.” More conversations have taken place, though they have not yet been recognized,” she said.
Cathy Moore, Interim Coordinator of Asia Pacific American Programs and Services, said ongoing events such as Lunches and Learns provide AAPI students with opportunities to learn and feel confident in their identities. said he hopes to become
“Our history as Asian American students or people begins with oppression and genocide. ‘ she said. “So I want to show my students that they can be proud of their underlying identity. It goes deeper.”
Another lunch and study is planned for spring 2023 with Pa Nhia Xiong, one of Fresno’s newest Hmong professors in the Department of Social Work Education. For more information on her upcoming AAPI events, visit the CCGC website.
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