2003 Programs and Events

St. Cloud State University Students Visit Lao P.D.R. (Dec. 30, 2003)

Ambassador Douglas A. Hartwick hosted 40 students, faculty and staff from St. Cloud State University in St Cloud, Minnesota

On December 28, Ambassador Douglas A. Hartwick hosted 40 students, faculty and staff from St. Cloud State University in St Cloud, Minnesota along with local Lao college students and graduates during the American group’s inter-semester visit to Laos December 25- December 30. It is the University’s first-ever visit to Laos in conjunction with St. Cloud’s Study Abroad program. Under the direction of Dr. Robert Johnson, Director of the Ethnic Studies Program, and Dr. Dia Cha, associate professor in the Ethnic Studies Department, the visit follows three months of academic study on the region and focuses on familiarizing American students with selected countries of particular interest to the St. Cloud academic community. Many of the student participants in the group are of ethnically Hmong and Lao background whose families came as refugees in the years following the war in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). The group is also visiting Thailand on this trip.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Hartwick congratulated the students and faculty for initiating such a ground-breaking trip to Laos to learn first hand about the life of the people of Laos. He explained that visits of this kind were important to both countries to promote people-to-people understanding and awareness of the close cultural, ethnic and even familial links that exist today between Laos and the United States. He added that their visit would also strengthen Lao awareness of the issues and concerns about Laos that are on the minds of young Americans today. Ambassador Hartwick urged the group upon their return to be in touch with their friends, communities and members of Congress to share their impressions about what they saw and learned during their visit.