Mai Xiong

My name is Mai Nyua Xiong, and I was born on September 8th, 1985 at the Children's Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ever since, I've lived in the state of "ten thousand lakes" and have never moved out. I'm a natural, living, and breathing Minnesotan Hmong lady (not girl!), currently 17 years old and about to turn 18 within this year. I live in the suburban city of Woodbury and yet I attend a St. Paul public high school, Johnson Senior High. How is that possible? It's simply because I had lived in the East side of St. Paul before my sophomore year at Johnson. I just didn't feel like changing high schools; I have my personal reasons and I don't regret it.
Being a student at Johnson is very enjoyable. I take Advance Placement classes and Quest classes to keep my GPA and school rank as high as possible. Along with these classes, I'm part of the Student Council, Johnson Asian Culture Club, Speech, National Honors Society, and theatre. For my senior year, I have been elected as Secretary for both Student Council and the Johnson Asian Culture Club. I have a feeling that my senior year is going to be lots of fun and academically challenging!
Along with school, I also have church activities. I'm currently a member of the Youth Ministry Board at Twin City's Hmong Alliance Church and volunteer as the Children's Choir director there. Planning activities for the youth and teaching songs to the children is very stimulating and of coarse enjoyable! I love going to church on Sundays and am proud to call myself a Christian!

After graduating from Johnson, I plan to go to college and major in English. While in or after college, I plan to get a certificate to work as a paralegal, which is an assistant to lawyers. I'm not quite sure yet of which college to go to, but I am thinking of maybe Hamline University, the UofM Twin Cities or Northwestern in Minnesota. Even though I don't know where to go, I have faith that God will lead me the right way.

As you can tell, my Christian faith plays a big part in my life. Without my faith, I don't know how I would have survived so long. God inspires me spiritually. Another who inspires me is my very best friend Chao Yang. She also attends Johnson and is a year younger than I am. Chao strives for a better future and always tries to make the best of each day. She and I had created the hip-hop dance group Centripetal By-play and are now competing in August of 2003 in the Mall of America. It's because of her that I'm in many school activities and also MACCESS.

MACCESS has been a great program to be in. I've enjoyed the activities, learned many new ways of becoming a better student, and met many new and wonderful people. It's an experience I'll never forget and I definitely don't regret it. After MACCESS I look forward to future programs and opportunities. I will walk away from this program with a smile!