When Phet Keomanyvanh (pa-et geld-ma-ni-vun) was about 6 years old, she had a frightening experience at school in St. Johnsbury that would shape her later life. Newly arrived from a refugee camp, Keomanyvanh was afraid to use the bathroom at school. During recess, she went to relieve herself "around the corner," recounted Keomanyvanh. A teacher found out and put her in a toilet stall, where Keomanyvanh couldn't figure out how to unlock the door and started crying. A janitor eventually got her out. "Those types of situations, they have a permanent effect on your psyche," said Keomanyvanh, now 42. "You're already feeling different and alienated enough, and then you have a traumatic experience such as that." Today, Keomanyvanh works for the City of Burlington as the community development specialist for public engagement at the Community and Economic Development Office. Through her work with programs such as the city's My Brother's Keeper Initiative, she strives to develop relationships with various constituencies and communities in Burlington and to make the city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming. "It's important not to minimize where people are coming from," said Keomanyvanh, "especially if they're coming from a totally different country and worldview." After the communist takeover of their native Laos in the mid-1970s, Keomanyvanh and her parents fled by crossing the Mekong River. They spent the next few years in refugee camps in Thailand — where her sister was born — and the Philippines. In January 1981, the family of four was resettled in Vermont with the help of a local church. Statistics from the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., set the Laotian population in the U.S. at close to 200,000 in 2015. Vermont was not a permanent destination for these refugees; while other Lao families settled in St. Johnsbury and Springfield, Keomanyvanh said, many eventually moved to bigger cities. Keomanyvanh's father, Khamchaleun, one of the founders of the Green Mountain Lao Association, estimates that 30 Laotian families currently live in Vermont. When Keomanyvanh arrived in St. Johnsbury, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program was only nascent, the state's ethnic diversity nearly nil. Keomanyvanh recalls a deeply alienating experience. Residents hurled racial epithets at them, both she and her father remembered. Her classmates made fun of her lunch of dried fish and sticky rice, and she wasn't allowed to attend slumber parties. She had to translate school documents for her…
When Phet Keomanyvanh (pa-et geld-ma-ni-vun) was about 6 years old, she had a frightening experience at school in St. Johnsbury that would shape her later life. Newly arrived from a refugee camp, Keomanyvanh was afraid to use the bathroom at school. During recess, she went to relieve herself "around the corner," recounted Keomanyvanh. A teacher found out and put her in a toilet stall, where Keomanyvanh couldn't figure out how to unlock the door and started crying. A janitor eventually got her out. "Those types of situations, they have a permanent effect on your psyche," said Keomanyvanh, now 42. "You're already feeling different and alienated enough, and then you have a traumatic experience such as that." Today, Keomanyvanh works for the City of Burlington as the community development specialist for public engagement at the Community and Economic Development Office. Through her work with programs such as the city's My Brother's Keeper Initiative, she strives to develop relationships with various constituencies and communities in Burlington and to make the city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming. "It's important not to minimize where people are coming from," said Keomanyvanh, "especially if they're coming from a totally different country and worldview." After the communist takeover of their native Laos in the mid-1970s, Keomanyvanh and her parents fled by crossing the Mekong River. They spent the next few years in refugee camps in Thailand — where her sister was born — and the Philippines. In January 1981, the family of four was resettled in Vermont with the help of a local church. Statistics from the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., set the Laotian population in the U.S. at close to 200,000 in 2015. Vermont was not a permanent destination for these refugees; while other Lao families settled in St. Johnsbury and Springfield, Keomanyvanh said, many eventually moved to bigger cities. Keomanyvanh's father, Khamchaleun, one of the founders of the Green Mountain Lao Association, estimates that 30 Laotian families currently live in Vermont. When Keomanyvanh arrived in St. Johnsbury, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program was only nascent, the state's ethnic diversity nearly nil. Keomanyvanh recalls a deeply alienating experience. Residents hurled racial epithets at them, both she and her father remembered. Her classmates made fun of her lunch of dried fish and sticky rice, and she wasn't allowed to attend slumber parties. She had to translate school documents for her…