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Sendra Yang smiles and looks into the camera. She is wearing glasses and a white lab coat. It is sunny outside, and there are buildings behind Sendra.

Interview Details

Interviewee(s):

Sendra Yang

Interviewer(s):

Sophie To

Date of Interview:

February 27, 2023

Communities:

Asian American, Hmong,

About

Sendra Yang is a co-founder of the Hmong Student Association of Carolina. She was born in California, where her parents were farmers, and moved to North Carolina (near the Morganton and Hickory area) when she was a young child. Sendra grew up being involved in various clubs and activities at school, while also helping take care of her younger siblings, as her parents worked long hours in manufacturing jobs. During her undergraduate at UNC, Sendra missed her family and the Hmong community, motivating her to learn more about Hmong history and find what being Hmong meant to her. Discovering that there were other Hmong students at UNC (including, as it turns out, students whose families knew her family) looking for those things, too, Sendra and her fellow students founded the Hmong Student Association of Carolina with the help of Dr. Rachel Willis. To this day, the student organization performs at cultural events, gets together to make and eat Hmong food, and hosts tours of universities for Hmong high schoolers in North Carolina. After graduating from UNC, Sendra worked for a few years, went back to school at East Carolina University for a degree in Clinical Laboratory Science, and worked in blood banking. She later attended pharmacy school. After her pharmacy residency, Sendra worked for a hospital system in Wisconsin before moving back to North Carolina. Sendra now lives with her husband and three beautiful kids near north Raleigh, and she currently works in the medical communication and health information field. Sendra recalls her and her family being on guard over the past few years because of COVID-related anti-Asian discrimination, and she also recalls her past experiences with discrimination—especially an incident in her childhood that stays with her to this day. Recently, Sendra and other Hmong women founded the North Carolina Hmong Women Association. She hopes to see more recognition of Hmong contributions to North Carolina and the South in the future, as more and more young Hmong people grow up and continue making an impact.

Listen to Yang’s oral history here: