“ It was kind of connecting with the right teachers that instilled my love of poetry ,” Vang said .

“ I look back and see how my teachers were so invested in helping to develop a love of literature in their students .”

Vang was born in Fresno in 1981 , about a year after her family had immigrated from a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand where they had lived for three years . They were among the 150,000 Hmong who fled their homeland of Laos after the communists ’ Vietnam War victory . The Hmong were forced out of their country because they had worked with the American CIA in the “ secret war ” in Laos .

While her parents were unfamiliar with American public libraries , Vang loved them from an early age . Though she came from a home where only Hmong was spoken , she excelled at reading and writing and wrote her first poems in middle school . She recalls a “ wonderful introduction to poetry ” from her eighth-grade English teacher , Beth Urabe . Teachers Susan Schauwecker and Cindy Duzi at McLane High School were influential as well , she said .

Another Fort Miller teacher , Nancy Weiler , is likely the reason Vang went on to attend UC Berkeley . Weiler , a Berkeley alum , would say , “ We ’ ve got to get you into Berkeley .”

“ She saw something in me .” Vang said . “ She had a lot more confidence in me than I had in myself .”

When Vang was in high school , it was unusual for a Hmong daughter to go away to college : “ It was a big risk for my parents to let a 17-yearold go to the Bay Area .”