Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series

Nong Khanthichit (Laos/Milwaukee, WI) in conversation with RJ Khanthichit (Milwaukee, WI) on January 31, 2025

Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series is an ongoing project that launched in 2020 as part of Lynden's HOME virtual platform. The series pairs individuals that have faced forced displacement and its changing forms in a conversational setting that is both purposeful and informational to interviewer, interviewee and their audience. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants interview those that have resettled to the United States, including friends and family that are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as those that remain overseas, covering various backgrounds and narrative identities, and professions, expertise and interests, including but not limited to artists, community members, advocates and leaders, healthcare workers, caseworkers, interpreters, and students and educators. These interviews are reflections of relationships and conversations that we continue to have long after resettlement; they explore issues that our refugee friends and family members continue to face as they remain in their country of origin or interim country.

In this Part 1 of 2-episode series, recorded on January 31, 2025, RJ Khanthichit interviews his mother, Nong Khanthichit, who offers to talk about the resettlement journey of Laotians –including her own family, to the U.S. in the 1980s, from Thailand. At the point of this recording—which is almost 45 years since her family’s refugee resettlement, Nong reflects on her life’s journey, including the opportunities she pursued that led to a successful 34-year career as an educator in the Milwaukee Public School District.

About RJ Khanthichit
Born in Milwaukee in 1997, RJ Khanthichit is a Laotian U.S. Air Force Veteran and Machinist. RJ attended Rufus King High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program –and during this time, he interned under the Lynden Sculpture Garden’s Education Program for two summers. He later graduated from Waukesha County Technical College with an associate’s degree in tool and die making. He considers himself a lifelong learner that is always seeking out new challenges and adventures. Whether for work or pleasure, he enjoys the travels that take him near and far. By road, he has traversed the varied terrains of the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and the Southeast –and across the globe, he has seen and experienced many foreign countries and their cultures, including Ireland, Turkey, and his family and community’s beloved Thailand and Laos.

About Nong Khanthichit
Born in Laos in 1968, Nong Khanthichit lived in Thailand with her parents and five siblings after the Vietnam War. After Nong’s mother passed away, the family resettled to the US –first residing in Handover Park, Illinois in 1980, then five years later, permanently moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to be in proximity with family relatives. As a graduate of South Division High School, Nong attended Milwaukee Area Technical College to obtain an associate’s degree in accounting while working as a paraprofessional aid during the day. While maintaining her day job, she continued to attend night and weekend classes at UW-Milwaukee to pursue a bachelor’s degree in education. After obtaining her degree, Nong worked in various teaching positions from the 1990s onwards. In October 2023, she retired after a successful 34-year career as an educator—where twelve of those years she taught English as a Second Language to refugee and immigrant students. She is married, and has two adult sons –her first born is a Laotian U.S. Air Force Veteran, and her second born is an EMT/Wildland Firefighter.

Check out the entire collection of Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series here.