TEL.A.VISION | It's Your Story

Hlub Zoo Program for At Risk 6th Grade Hmong Girls

Posted on 10. Jun, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts

Mary Her, working with the Wilder Foundation program for Hmong girls,  had all of her girls complete TEL.A.VISION  vision videos. She said she learned things about the girls doing the vision video process that she hadn’t learned working a year with them. The girls were thrilled to show the videos at a graduation ceremony in front of friends and family.

First are a few examples from Shoua Cha and Mai Mayla Vang and what follows is Mary’s story of the experience. Please read on after the videos if you are interested in the best way to help youth reach their potential with a vision video.

Working through those videos with the girls was a very interesting process.  I think we had about 4 weeks to prepare 16 videos.  At first I thought that it was going to be an easy process, however as we started to get into the packet and talking about what types of goals the girls had for the future, it was really hard.  Many of the girls were not sure about what and who they wanted to become.

As we were working in groups and discussed each scene, many of them came up with the same answers because it seemed more safe.  However, when I realized that I was not getting anywhere, I decided to work with each girl individually.  It was through that process that I was able to build a deeper connection with her and encourage her to think deeper and farther out into her future.

Some of the responses I received from some of the girls were.  ” I don’t know what I want to do,” “I don’t see myself doing anything great in my future,” ” I don’t think it is possible that I will be able to go to college or find a good job,” ” I want to have a good life, but I don’t think it is possible,” “I’ve never thought about my future until now,” ” I’m scared to think about my future.”  However, after going through the process with them individually and helping and guiding them in creating the video and having them see the outcome of their videos,  all of them had a smile on their faces and were so proud of themselves.

Some of them stated ” Believe in your future, your future is bright, many of them are now starting to think further than just what is happening “here and now.”  Even in our group discussion this week, we talked about making decisions that will impact our lives.  We talked about issues such as boys, running away, ditching school with friends and peer pressure.  I did a role play with one of the girls and in that role play I pretended to be her best friend asking her to ditch school with me to go to the mall.  After much convincing she decided to go and said, just this 1x.  The next day I asked again and she said I told you that I don’t want to go because I don’t want to get in trouble or fall behind in school.  But eventually she decided to leave school.  Then next day I asked her again and this time she became upset and said, “Yes, I don’t like school very much, but if I continue to ditch school, I will have bad grades and will not be able to go to college and have the life that I want.  She then referred to her video and how she talked about wanting a good job and a big house and doing some of the things that she had planned to do from her video.

I thought that it was so interesting and awesome that she was able to think about that.  Another thing was, it was very powerful for our younger kids to see the 6th graders graduate from Hlub Zoo and see what their visions for their future will be.  In group our younger kids are already thinking about what their going to put in their videos when they graduate.  They also said that it was their favorite part of the graduation ceremony.  Now I even have teachers asking me how that process went and how it would benefit their classes.