Sandy Yang is on track to graduate from St. Olaf College this spring. And if all goes well, she'll be back for next year's ceremonies. And the year after that. And the year after that.
That's because her sister Betty (class of 2010), sister Nou ('11) and brother Kong ('12) all go to St. Olaf, too.
On a campus of 3,000 students of whom 50 are Hmong, the Yangs are putting St. Olaf in the unusual position this year of simultaneously educating four students from the same family. And not just any family, but an immigrant family just a generation removed from the Vietnam War.
It's an achievement that fills their north Minneapolis parents with pride. The couple, Chawa Yang and Mai Xiong, came to Minnesota 23 years ago from a refugee camp in Thailand.
"They are very good students," Chawa Yang said. "I hope that when they finish college, they will find a job ... and get a better life than me and my wife."
Having four siblings on campus at once is "extraordinary," said Michael Kyle, the college's vice president and dean of enrollment.
Sandy found the college in high school through a federal program run by St. Olaf that helps disadvantaged Twin Cities students go to college. She liked the school's close-knit community and small classes, and her parents had always pushed her to pursue a good education.
It's a philosophy not shared by some traditional Hmong families, in which girls sometimes marry and drop out of school when they're 15 or 16. "As a 22-year-old, I could be considered an old maid in the traditional culture," said Sandy, who is majoring in Asian studies and family studies and hopes to become a counselor.