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While nearly every nation has a checkered past, reducing a country to a single chapter risks overlooking the richness of its history and culture.

Through a series of professional development workshops over the 2024–25 academic year, the South, Southeast, and West Asia Outreach Program (SSEWA) of the��Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at CU Boulder helped teachers gain a more nuanced perspective on three conflict-affected countries—Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam—and helped reshape how some Colorado educators approach global education.

“SSEWA workshops help CU Boulder scholarship and research expand and deepen Colorado educators’ knowledge of underrepresented regions in Asia,” said SSEWA Outreach Coordinator Hannah Palustre.

CAS ran the SSEWA program from 2006 to 2014 and relaunched it in 2022, through a $2.2 million��National Resource Center (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Additional funding from the CU Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship and Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia allowed SSEWA to offer workshops at no cost to teachers, expanding access and impact.

“I recently learned that ‘sewa’ means ‘service’ in Nepali, which seems fitting because the SSEWA outreach program serves teachers,” Palustre said. “Almost three years after our relaunch, we’re seeing a growing number of repeat participants—educators who continue to seek global perspectives for their classrooms.”

Afghanistan beyond the Taliban

Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Colorado has welcomed many Afghan immigrants. According to the Colorado Office of New Americans, Afghanistan is now the second-largest country of origin for refugee resettlement in the state. Dari and Pashto, languages spoken by Afghans, now rank among the top 10 most widely spoken languages among refugees in Colorado.

Despite a growing number of Afghan students in their classrooms, many teachers still don’t have extensive knowledge about Afghanistan’s history or culture. To help bridge this gap, SSEWA organized “Afghanistan’s Terrain and Traditions,” which received over twice as many applications as the workshop’s capacity, with teachers representing Adams 12, Aurora, Boulder Valley, Cherry Creek, Denver, Douglas, Littleton and Poudre school districts.

Jennifer Fluri, chair of CU’s geography department, opened the workshop with a historical and geopolitical overview of Afghanistan. Guest speakers Sayed Naqibullah and Homayoon Milad, both Afghan immigrants in Colorado, shared insights into their religion, culture and experiences as immigrants.

“It was incredibly helpful to learn about the school system in Afghanistan, for example, that students may not yet know how to read even if they’ve been in school before,” said Amanda Clayton, director for culturally and linguistically diverse education in Adams 12 Five Star Schools. “It has changed my thinking about our approach to reading instruction and foundational literacy for many of our newcomer students.”

CU graduate student Hannah Kim, who also teaches newcomer students, emphasized the importance of regional diversity in professional development. “Most workshops focus on East Asia, so this program was a rare opportunity to learn about other Asian countries. I wish we could have more programs like this.”

Participants also received a copy of the Choices curriculum unit, “The United States in Afghanistan.” Due to the high interest received by the Afghanistan workshop, SSEWA plans to offer the program again, contingent on continued funding.

Cambodia after the genocide

Cambodia’s History and Heritage workshop participants in front of the Angkor exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

The Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia is often taught in Colorado classrooms through required units on the Cambodian genocide, often overlooking the country’s long and rich history as the center of the Khmer Empire, known for its advanced engineering, and Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument.

To highlight this, SSEWA partnered with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) to host “Cambodia’s History and Heritage,” a one-day workshop attended by 18 teachers that included a visit to the museum’s new temporary exhibit, “Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia.” The exhibit will be at the museum until Aug. 24, 2025.

FirstBank Executive Vice President and CU alumnus Tony Oum gave a presentation on “Cambodia’s Past, Present, and Future,” offering a visual tour of his homeland while sharing experiences as a Cambodian Buddhist living in Colorado.��

Sarah Klassen, assistant director of CU’s Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archeology, gave a talk on recent efforts to map Angkor and uncover more about its urban and environmental history. Her presentation on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) inspired teachers to explore how archeology and science intersect with social studies education.

“I want to learn more about LiDAR and how it can help us better understand ancient civilizations. I will use that information to encourage cross-curricular lessons and activities at my school,” said Andrew Alexander, who teaches social studies in Weld RE-4 School District.

“It was great to get a historical and personal perspective from Tony Oum and to learn from Dr. Klassen about how LiDAR is changing cultural studies. I’m working on a lesson plan to share with my colleagues,” said Vanessa Carroll, who runs a post-secondary program in Boulder Valley School District.

Teachers then toured the Angkor exhibit, which features over a hundred original artifacts—sculptures, musical instruments, religious figures—many never displayed outside Cambodia before.

“The information about Angkor Wat was beneficial to me in helping students understand how rulers legitimize authority through infrastructure and religion. The exhibit also did a great job of honoring the history and religious aspects of Cambodia,” said Alexis Hoffman, who teaches AP world history at Horizon High School in Adams 12.

“I loved hearing that the Cambodian government had approved the artifacts and worked with DMNS on the exhibit. The interactive displays would be great for my students,” said Emma Wolf, who teaches geography at Endeavor Academy in Cherry Creek, adding that the breakout sessions with fellow teachers helped create great ideas for the classroom.

Vietnam is a country, not a war

Educators discuss and analyze archival photos from University Libraries’ Rare and Distinctive Collections during the Vietnam through Time summer workshop.��

Finally, the SSEWA 2025 summer workshop centered on the theme, “Vietnam through Time: Teaching the History, Culture, and Transformation of a Nation,” to mark 50 years since the Fall of Saigon. Held over three days in June, the workshop brought together secondary and community college educators to reframe how Vietnam is taught, shifting from war narratives to a broader view of its rich pre-colonial past and present-day identity.

Organized around daily topics like “War and Memory,” “Roots and Representations,” and “Continuity and Change,” the workshop featured lectures and interactive sessions led by CU faculty.

Steven Dike, associate teaching professor of history, provided historical context on the Vietnam wars. Asian Studies Program Director Lauren Collins and Sean Babbs of University Libraries co-led an interactive session on teaching Vietnam through photography, using images from the libraries’ Rare and Distinctive Collections, including colonial, wartime and post-war photos.

A veteran panel composed of CU Professor Emeritus of Art Chuck Forsman, CU Regent Emeritus Peter Steinhauer, and Veterans for Peace National President Susan Schnall shared their reflections on returning to Vietnam, while Rose Campbell, co-director of the Center for the Study of War Experience at Regis University, discussed how war anniversaries are commemorated differently in Vietnam and the U.S.

“Dr. Collins and Sean Babbs provided a wealth of resources that I would never have realized were available to me,” said Becky Barton, a history teacher at Golden High School and Red Rocks Community College. “It’s always been a struggle for me and my planning team to find quality sources for students to analyze, and I’ve just been handed a goldmine for future lessons.”

Alyson Koerner, who teaches U.S. history at Dakota Ridge High School in Jefferson County, said, “Professor Dike’s words, ‘Vietnam is a country, not a war,’ struck a deep chord with me. The workshop challenged me to move beyond a war-centered lens, broadened my perspective, and encouraged me to rethink not only what I teach but the way I teach it.”

To elevate Vietnamese voices, three guest speakers were invited to lend authenticity and lived experiences to the sessions.

Modern Vietnam scholar Alex-Thài Vo, a research assistant professor from Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center & Archive, used a bowl of pho to illustrate the country’s diversity, which inspired teachers to bring a new approach to their classrooms.

“Food is a meaningful and accessible entry point for students,” said Scott Braun, a social studies teacher at Newton Middle School in Littleton, who designed an extra credit project called “Exploring Vietnam through Pho.” “It will allow my students to examine Vietnamese culture through something they already love—food.”

Joie Lê, adjunct professor at the University of Denver, presented on Vietnam’s early colonization and pre-Indochina history, and closed the workshop with a session on memory and memorials.��She also shared her story as a Vietnamese adoptee, along with lots of book recommendations about her birth country.

“Dr. Lê drove home the point that language and how we communicate matter,” said Amy Robbins, a humanities teacher at Watershed School in Boulder. “As teachers, we choose the narratives we bring into our classrooms, and it was a powerful reminder not to settle for just one story.”

Nga Vương-Sandoval, founder of Colorado nonprofit Refugees + Immigrants United, recounted her personal experience as a refugee and addressed the proper spelling of her home country—Việt Nam. She explained that the Westernized spelling, “Vietnam,” became common due to telegraph-era limitations at the time, which often required compressing words for efficiency.

“Every speaker changed the way I think about Vietnam, its people, and the importance of how we teach history. I feel better equipped and more motivated to bring these stories and voices into my classroom,” said Braun.

After the summer program, participants submitted curriculum implementation plans detailing how they will integrate new insights into their respective courses. They also received copies of the Choices curriculum unit, “The Vietnam War: Origins, History, and Legacies” from the Program for Teaching East Asia, a CAS affiliate.

As educators return to their classrooms, they bring with them not only new knowledge and strategies but also a deeper commitment to teaching countries like Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam with greater nuance, highlighting the richness of their histories and cultures, and not only the conflicts that brought them into the global spotlight.

For more information about SSEWA programs, email Outreach Coordinator Hannah Palustre at��ssewa@colorado.edu���ǰ� visit their website.

The Center for Asian Studies and its SSEWA program rely on grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Due to shifting priorities at the federal level, that grant funding has become tenuous. We invite you to help��support CAS.