Photo courtesy of HAPA
Hmong American Peace Academy Graduation
HAPA graduates
In this negative era of complaints, protests, victims and lawsuits, the endless whining about the next apocalypse, and the gaslighting world of calumny, let me introduce you to the positive: Chris Her-Xiong, founder and chief executive director at the Hmong American Peace Academy. I met Her-Xiong in her office for a conversation. She is diminutive but assured, unwavering in her dedication to education. Early on, I could feel her confidence and strength. It’s like when you meet someone who manifests a solid purpose.
Her-Xiong began her life as the child of Hmong farmers in Laos. Throughout her first 10 years, the Vietnam War was raging not that far away. When the war ended in 1975, and the United States walked away, she was 10 years old. “My family became refugees,” she told me. “We escaped the communists and headed for Thailand and took a boat across the Mekong River. We lived in a refugee center with all the refugees. We slept on bunk beds, four children on the top bunk, my parents on the bottom bunk. We scrounged for food.”
Let me pause for a beat in her courageous story and take it forward 50 years. Her-Xiong is now the CEO of the Hmong American Peace Academy (HAPA) on North 84th Street in Milwaukee. How did she get from a Thai refugee camp to head a big, beautiful school with nearly 2,000 students?
Reel back to 1975. Funded by the United Nations, her family was moved to another Thai refugee camp and stayed there for a year. Then, Her-Xiong’s father decided to move his family to America. In December of 1976, the family immigrated to Des Moines, Iowa.
“That was the first time I had ever seen snow,” she said, “and I was dazzled by the bright lights of Christmas.” She was 11 years old when the family was transferred to a small town in Iowa. She found schooling in Iowa to be an adjustment. She even had to learn to hold a pencil. Growing up in America, Her-Xiong struggled with the pressure to follow Hmong traditions, including a focus on becoming a wife and homemaker. She yearned for independence. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Central College in Pela, Iowa, she lived in that city until 1990 when she married and moved to Milwaukee.
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That same year, she became the first Hmong teacher hired by the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and also its first Hmong bilingual teacher.
As time moved forward, she observed her Hmong students facing the same identity crisis that she had gone through as a youth. She supported the Hmong students to embrace their culture, but she wanted them to embrace a variety of choices. “In 2000, my husband and I returned to the refugee camp in Thailand where I saw teenage girls being ushered into a minivan,” she told me. “I found out they were being sold into sex slavery. That broke my heart. When we returned to Milwaukee, I earned my school principal degree at Alverno College. The Hmong residents got together and made a plan to move our community forward. We decided on three components: one, social economic development; two, health care; and three, education. But we all agreed education was the key to uplift our community.”
She founded the Hmong American Peace Academy, an MPS charter school and the first Hmong charter school in Wisconsin. It celebrates Hmong heritage, rigorous academics and a community peace program. The school began in 2004 with just 200 children in grades K4-5. By 2025, including a middle and high school, the enrollment has increased to nearly 2,000 and claims a 100% college acceptance rate. Not long ago, Her-Xiong was honored by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation for her inspirational leadership and was a Milwaukee Business Journal 2016 Woman of Influence. She also was named to Governor Tony Evers’ Personnel Advisory Council to help refer potential candidates for key state positions.
Her-Xiong told me HAPA’s most important component is education. The HAPA school breaks down the education curriculum into three pillars. She explained, “The first pillar: we teach our young people their history, where they come from and who they are, teaching them to become productive citizens. Our heritage is very important. The second pillar: the school offers a rigorous, top-rated education so our students can be competitive in the global market and move out of poverty. The third pillar: we teach our children peaceful skills, that war is not always the answer to solve problems, and that character development is important.”
Touring the School
After I left Her Xiong, I toured the school with Michelle Ganley, HAPA’s marketing and communications manager. Engaging and well informed, Ganley has an extensive background in television news and media marketing.
When I think of a school, I envision the old brick and mortar buildings. But in 2021, HAPA erected vast a modern complex, a pair of connected angular shapes, one with three stories of wide windows. The structure was built with three types of slate gray metal wall panels. 99,000 square feet in all. The students have a long ancient history, but the school speaks of the modern.
Ganley and I walked the wide gleaming floors, and she pointed out the features: 38 classrooms, a 16,000 square-foot gymnasium and an expansive auditorium. The capacious cafeteria can accommodate hundreds of students. There is a multipurpose resource center, where students socialize in a student-run cafe similar in style to Starbucks. Off the resource center, nests a museum dedicated to Hmong history and culture. A hallway ceiling traces the shape of the Mekong River, which many Hmong families had to cross as refugees after the Vietnam War.
When we encountered teachers or staff members, they were always courteous and gracious. As the students quietly passed by, I thought of one word: respect.
“Many of our kids did not speak English until they entered this school,” Ganley explained. “Each school day is a challenge. School starts at 7AM each morning.”
She went on, “We are a Hmong-centered school, grades K4 through 12, chartered under the Milwaukee Public Schools. In all, we have nearly 2,000 students. Almost all are Hmong children. Our education blends academics and Hmong culture, including Hmong history and language. We offer a traditional rigorous academic schedule, including college courses. This year, our 122 seniors already have 100% acceptance to colleges. Many are first-generation college students.”
The school employs nearly 200 staff members. Many teachers are Hmong but some are not, and there are instructional coaches to support teachers. “A lot of the seniors I talk to say the academic curriculum was hard but worth it,” said Ganley
The Educational Curriculum
What makes this school such a huge success? For the answer, I turned to Brendan Kearney, HAPA’s Chief Academic Officer. A rangy man with an Ivy League appearance, Kearny knows his academics, having earned two master's degrees from prestigious colleges.
“At HAPA, we offer the traditional courses similar to public schools,” Kearney said, “but we also offer cultural courses, and we emphasize our scholars being peace builders and peacekeepers. This philosophy runs through all our courses and is emphasized by our advisers.”
HAPA’s curriculum includes a broad range of courses—Hmong history, Hmong culture and four levels of language to prepare students for college. There are also four levels of Education courses, multiple levels of college English and courses in the Healthcare profession. About 575 students attend the high school, and, in the last two years, they earned 3,000 credits through the multi-course programs.
“All of our seniors go onto colleges, and our average college acceptance rate is 5.2,” Kearny said. “Many graduates go to UW schools—Madison, Milwaukee, also MATC and Marquette.”
The 2025 senior class members have earned more than $17 million in scholarships, and a team of college and career staff members guides every student through the application process along with reviewing professional goals.
The HAPA Foundation
It is difficult to run a successful charter school without donations. Enter Patrick Tevlin, the inaugural executive director of development of the HAPA Foundation, a separate 501c3 organization. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and with a 25-year history of fundraising. He spent almost nine years at the University School of Milwaukee, where he successfully completed a comprehensive capital campaign, raising more than $30 million.
I met Tevlin in his office at the school. He wore a starched white shirt and tie and spoke through natural confidence laced with humor. He is the kind of a guy you might ask for advice. It was clear he was comfortable the world of high finance.
I started out, “I believe you worked in the eastern U.S. among independent boarding schools. How did you end up in Milwaukee?”
“I worked for several eastern day and independent boarding schools out east,” he said. “In 2015, I found out University School in Milwaukee was looking for a new Chief Advancement Officer. The school had been very successful without a lot of debt, the kind of Midwestern values I like. I took the job and was there for many years. Here at the HAPA school, we have manageable debt. In 2021, we built this new 90,000 square foot high school for $27 million on a low interest bond, not donations.”
“What exactly is the HAPA Foundation?” I asked.
“The HAPA Foundation is the chief fundraising arm of the HAPA Charter School,” he said. “Every gift to the foundation is given to the school over anything that is not met by the budget. Currently, we have a need for more space on this campus because Grades 3, 4, and 5 are not located on the campus but in a building about ten minutes from here. We plan to add a new wing for those kids and their faculty, and also build a right size space for our primary school of K4 through 2nd grade. That is the main thrust of what I am raising money for. We’d like about $15 million for the new primary school, which could add another 90,000 square feet. We would also like an annual gift to help support our yearly operating budget. We hope to raise $27 million in all.”
He gave a further explanation. “We have about 13,000 to 15,000 Hmong families in Milwaukee, the 3rd or 4th largest U.S. city for Hmong residents. 3,000 school age Hmong children, K4 through 12th grade. We can only support about 2,000.”
“Let’s say I am interested in the school,” I said. “Why would I donate to the HAPA Foundation?”
"We believe we have a great story and a well-managed school.
For example, Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given $3 million to HAPA from her foundation. We’d like to see a Milwaukee entrepreneur match or double that figure. August of 2029 will be our 25th anniversary, and we’d like to have our school addition be constructed by then.”
He told me the Foundation’s goal is to raise $1,000 per scholar. There are 2,000 scholars in the HAPA school. I asked how the Foundation donations are allocated. Tevlin said, “We hope to get an annual gift to cover the $1,000 per scholar cost, might be from an estate or a legacy gift, for example.”
Any good business, nonprofit or government agency can attribute success to its people. Like the Hmong American Peace Academy school, the Foundation has rigorous goals. I was thinking those goals will probably be met.
For more information about the school, visit myhapa.org. To learn more about the Foundation, contact Patrick Tevlin at tevlin.patrick@myhapa.org
