Our Mission & Vision
Our Mission
Our Scholarship Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that is entirely run by volunteers. Our mission is to increase access to higher education by fundraising and providing scholarships to Southeast Asian students in Wisconsin.
Our Vision
Through giving, we will grow a strong, collaborative Southeast Asian community of role models and leaders to promote empowerment in all communities.
Our Values
Resilience. Restorative. Rise.
Our Past: Resilience
Our Southeast Asian ancestors, relatives, grandparents, and parents have made a lot of sacrifices within their journey to the United States. Being here, we all continuously face challenges such as assimilation, discrimination, and language barriers. We as the Our Scholarship, Inc. founding team, witnessed first-hand our communities' struggles. Their resilience is what drove us to achieve higher education and create this organization. We are all second-generation Hmong Americans navigating between two worlds of being Hmong and being American. This core value is for everyone who came before us. We thank them for their resilience and paving the way.
Our Future: Rise
As we reflect on our past and live in the present, our community is ready to build capacity to rise in the future. Like many communities of color, our Southeast Asian community are celebrating many firsts in education, policy, law, health and other fields. With our knowledge, assets and skills we aspire to collaborate with communities who share our core values. Representation is exciting and necessary as it gives our future generation perspective in reaching their own goals. This core value is dedicated to our youth and the next generation of leaders who will continue the legacy.
Our Present: Restorative
Our Southeast Asian community is currently healing. We are beginning to talk about generational trauma, mental health, domestic violence and other taboo topics that we couldn’t discuss in the past. Generations are coming together to hear each other out, learn more about how to restore our community and seek resources together. As our communities’ identities are evolving, we hope to take a restorative approach in creating more equitable spaces and opportunities. We believe educational equity is a good starting point. This core value is for those who feel unheard and unseen when it comes to equity, we see you and we hear you.