A young woman in yellow Reeboks sprints from house to house in southeast Sacramento, trying to make history.
On weekends and weeknights Theresa Moung Hinh Saechao, who used to be afraid to speak English, politely introduces herself to her neighbors in area 4: "I work with students, I'm running for school board, and I'm asking for your support."
Saechao is also running to realize her American dream. The 25-year-old youth counselor and community activist hopes to become the first Iu Mien refugee in the United States elected to public office.
"It's my passion," she said, checking her master list of 15,876 registered voters in Sacramento City Unified School District's trustee area 4.
She's visited the homes of 2,000 voters since March, when she launched her campaign for the November election.
The school district serves 46,053 K-12 students, 31 percent of them English learners who speak 49 languages. Nearly 1,000 are Iu Mien.
Sacramento is the Iu Mien capital of the United States, home to 6,000 of the nation's 50,000 Iu Mien refugees from Laos and Thailand. They're the families of men recruited by the CIA's secret jungle army to battle Laotian and Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War.
Those who weren't killed – including Saechao's grandfather, Wanh Pou Saechao – fled across the Mekong River into Thailand.
Their offspring need role models and inspiration, said Saechao, who is the first in her family to finish high school and college.
"A lot of our students, not just Iu Mien, are flunking out of school and getting into gangs – crime starts in the school system," she said over a bowl of chicken noodle soup at TK Noodle on 65th Street. She and campaign manager Tom Bhe – a rocket scientist at Aerojet in Rancho Cordova – fortified themselves before knocking on 100 doors Sunday. "Walking precincts is the only way to win," Bhe said.
Saechao said she's fueled by her desire "to motivate students to stay in school."
"That was missing in my life," she said. "My parents encouraged me but couldn't guide me. We need to educate the parents how to participate."
She and her parents and three younger siblings arrived in Sacramento in 1990 and settled into a one-room cottage in Oak Park before moving to south Sacramento. She remembers struggling with English.
"In second grade, I asked a classmate how to spell 'I,'" she said. "I wanted to say, 'I want to go eat, don't hit me, don't touch me,' but I couldn't force any words out."
Nearly paralyzed by shyness, intimidated by her teachers and put down by classmates because she was in English learner classes, she spoke slang at Fern Bacon Middle School to fit in.
"I claimed to be Vietnamese or Chinese," she said, because nobody knew who the Iu Mien were.
But at West Campus High, Saechao – who was given the name Theresa in the second grade by an English tutor – embraced her culture. She organized Iu Mien clubs, taught cultural dance and tutored Iu Mien students. She now works for Lao Family Community Development as a crime victim counselor.
In 2007, Saechao got a degree in philosophy and applied ethics and law from California State University, Sacramento. She said she is motivated by something her parents often said to her: "If other people can do it, you can do it!"
Her dad, Cheepou Saechao, finished sixth grade in Laos before he was sent to the rice fields, "and my wife never got to school – she just work, work, work," he said.
In Sacramento, they worked their way off welfare with minimum-wage jobs – he assembled computers for Packard Bell while she cut flowers. Three years ago, the family opened Chadra Thai Restaurant on Broadway.
Contemplating his daughter's historic run for office, Cheepou Saechao wonders if she's too young, then adds, "I'm proud for her to get it. I work with the Mien community helping people with medical translation, same thing my daughter did."
The filing period does not open until July 14 for the November election, but one of Saechao's potential opponents will be Gustavo Arroyo. He lived in Mexico between the ages of 2 and 11, returning to the United States in the seventh grade, and said he also knows the challenges facing bilingual students.
"Not being able to communicate with teachers and peers, being laughed at, you name it," said Arroyo, 35. "We don't have the curriculum or materials to meet the needs of English language learners, not to mention we don't have enough teachers."
Arroyo, who earned a degree in government from Sacramento State, works on education policy for the state Senate.
The region that he and Saechao are running to represent was created in 2006, when Sacramento City Unified residents voted to eliminate an at-large system in which all voters elect all seven board members, to a trustee area system in which voters elect one board member to represent their neighborhood.
The 52,623 people in District 4 are 24 percent Asian and Pacific Islander, 11.4 percent African American and 38 percent Latino.
Laura Leonelli, director of the Southeast Asian Assistance Center, is excited the multi-ethnic district will get a chance to elect its own representative.
Leonelli said Saechao took some heat for jumping in as a political outsider. "She got savvy really quickly," Leonelli said. "She's very bright, very dedicated, and she's always been working for the community."
Tony S. Lee, president of the United Iu Mien Community, said the first Iu Mien family arrived in the United States in 1976, the second wave came around 1982, and the latest group came in the '90s.
"We need a bridge from Mien families to the schools," he said.
"When there's a conflict or the kids aren't doing well, the school contacts the parents, and they don't know what to do," Lee said. "If we have a Iu Mien representative, things can be improved on both ends."
Saechao, clad in black to make her look older, easily interacts with people of all ages and races.
"I really want to serve all the people in south Sacramento struggling with gangs," she said. "We've got to give them hope again."
Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072. Bee staff writer Phillip Reese contributed to this report.
