The Hmong American Peace Academy (HAPA) is a MPS Charter School that was founded by Dr. Chris Her-Xiong in 2004. HAPA’s first year began with 200 students, which has now expanded to over 950 from K4-12th Grade.

The HAPA Tennis After School Program was developed to help the underserved, trauma sensitive, Hmong youth in the City of Milwaukee.The purpose of the HAPA Tennis After School Program was to generate awareness and opportunities on scholarships and mentorship from Stryv365 & Hurvis/ADAMM. Creating interest in the sport of tennis and life skills that produce great values and lessons that many players can carry onto their personal and professional lives.

The Hmong community is a large underserved population in the City of Milwaukee. Many of these families suffer traumatic experiences from living in concentration camps in Laos during the Vietnam War, with limited education and low-income. Most students who attend Hmong American Peace Academy(HAPA) are the first or second generation of their family to be born in the United States, with 90% of these students receiving free or reduced lunch.Having language barriers and being sheltered from the outside world, students are unable to see the bigger picture of how diversifying their network and higher education can benefit themselves and their families. Although HAPA’s students have a strong academic performance, many of the students who attend college after high school end up dropping out. Could this be through the lack of mentorship and need to support their families financially? Understanding the possible barriers that can hold students from being successful, Stryv365 &Hurvis/ADAMM decided to design a pilot program to create visibility and accessibility to allow opportunities for Hmong students to develop life skills and help fund their college education.

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