There’s a student among you that was born on a mountaintop, in the middle of nowhere, without any hospitals, doctors or modern medicine to assist her mother’s torturous labor. Although Pheng Vang’s entry in a Third-World country was complicated, her birth was cake compared to the tragic journey that lay ahead.

Vang’s epic tale of the early aspect of her life is so compelling, that there will be an exhibit dedicated to honor her childhood experiences.

In respecting the CSUS Year of Unity theme and recognition of the Hmong New Year, the Library will present Vang’s exhibit, “A Hmong Family Album: Pictures of a Journey,” from Nov. 30 to Dec. 15. During this exhibit, Vang plans to enlighten her audience by going into a detailed account of her family’s personal struggle to attain freedom.

She’ll explain how her family migrated from a refugee camp in Thailand at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and describe the adversity her family faced in their long journey to the United States.

Vang immigrated to America when she was around six years old. Vang explains that to this day she doesn’t know when she was born.

“When we got to Thailand, everyone had to have a birth date for documentary purposes,” Vang said. “Since no one in my family was born in a hospital, the Thai officials in the refugee camps gave us all the same birth date with different years.”

Along with Vang’s inspiring verbal rendition of her life story, she’ll display photographs taken of family, relatives and friends in the refugee camps.

This exhibit will also include documents, textiles, artifacts and women’s clothing traditionally worn during Hmong New Year festivities.

There will be an afternoon program to kick off the exhibit on Thursday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, which is located at the south entrance of the Library.

Refreshments, music and poetry will conclude the afternoon celebration of Hmong New Year.

The program and exhibit are free of charge and everyone is welcome.

For additional information, call 278-6144.