Asian language educators launch fellowship to connect classrooms with Minnesota communities

Across Minnesota, Asian language educators play a critical role in helping students maintain connections to their heritage languages and cultures while building intercultural understanding in diverse classrooms. This includes teachers like Yao Tu, who teaches Chinese at the University of Minnesota and explains that many language programs emphasize linguistic proficiency without providing structured opportunities for community engagement or collaboration across different language programs. 

A new initiative led by We As One Education, in partnership with Tu and supported by the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub (The Hub) residency program, aims to address that gap by providing a collaborative space where language educators can access university resources and connect with other educators. 

We As One Education

We As One Camp, a world language and culture program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, began in 2020. The camp offers an immersive learning experience that combines language practice with cultural dialogue, hands-on activities, and conversations about identity, diversity, and belonging. 

Through the program, students interact with instructors from different language backgrounds and hear from guest speakers representing a variety of cultures. The goal is to use language and culture as a bridge to help students better understand their identities and communities. 

Educators also recognize the broader needs among world language educators, many of whom are first-generation immigrants navigating cultural differences with their students and families. 

“Asian teachers tend to be isolated in our own culture because of the stereotyping of Asian people in general,” says Johanna Huang, founder and executive director of We As One.

Huang, who grew up in China and moved to the United States at age 32, says experiences with identity can vary. Many people, she says, struggle with questions about belonging and identity.

“We have very different histories, languages, immigration experiences, and cultural traditions,” Tu adds. “Although our language, history, and culture might be different, the challenges we face are really similar.”

In 2024, the group formally established We As One Education, a nonprofit organization, which aims to connect language learning with cultural understanding, helping people explore their identities and heritage while strengthening communities through real-world experiences. 

Rooted in Culture, Connected through Community

With their Hub residency, We As One Education started a fellowship called “Rooted in Culture, Connected through Community,” which seeks to bring together Asian language educators to collaborate with community leaders to design curriculum that bridges classroom learning with community knowledge. Through the fellowship, teachers of Chinese, Hmong, Karen, and Korean language will work alongside community members and cultural organizations to create culturally responsive learning materials and experiences for K-16 students. Teachers will incorporate guest speakers, community interviews, and field trips into their lessons. Students will engage with local communities as learners and contributors. 

“Language learning will become more relational and experiential, rooted in the Minnesota Asian community,” Tu says. 

The Hub’s focus on equity and inclusion aligns with the project’s goal of expanding language education beyond traditional Eurocentric perspectives, ensuring students feel their language and cultures are recognized and valued in schools.

Tu, who is also associate director of the University’s Chinese Flagship Program, says the fellowship additionally responds to challenges facing language programs across Minnesota, where budget cuts and shifting priorities have led to world language programs being cut in schools. 

Language learning apps can not totally replace classroom instruction, she shares.

“Students might be able to use the [language learning] apps to learn vocabulary and grammar, but they can never really replace the real language learning experience,” Tu says. “The apps can not really cultivate intercultural empathy or community relationships.”

Huang says another goal is to move away from teaching language with a tourist perspective — teaching students about cultures only as distant places they might visit someday. 

Although Chinese is one of the most widely studied languages in U.S. universities, the majority of language learners do not have the opportunity to participate in study abroad programs in China, says Huang. 

“As the teacher, we should reflect and find another meaning,” Huang says. “The meaning really is that they are using the language and their cultural competency to serve their community, right here in Minnesota, and learn from the community.”

One locally grounded lesson developed through the fellowship centers on the Minnesota China Friendship Garden in Phalen Park in St. Paul. The garden is located in a Hmong community and features a Chinese pavilion, Huang says. This reflects connections between different Asian communities in Minnesota. 

As part of the lesson, students will interview members of the garden’s organizing group to learn about the history behind the space. The students will also visit the garden themselves later in the year. The visit will include a small service-learning component, where students help clean up the park. Because students will learn about the history of the garden from the community members, the field trip carries so much more meaning, Huang says. 

This project reflects the goals of the fellowship to connect students with people and their cultures in specific communities.

“That’s what language learning is for me,” Huang says. “It’s about serving your community and learning from your community. It’s not just about speaking the language.”

By moving beyond traditional classroom boundaries, this program is transforming language instruction into a collaborative act of community building. Through the development of more than ten original curriculum units and partnerships with local cultural organizations and people, they aren’t just teaching vocabulary — they are cultivating a sense of belonging and agency for the next generation of students in Minnesota.

This story was written by Lulu Jaeckel, an undergraduate student in CLA.