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Alumnus using Teacher of the Year platform to fight for Asian American-inclusive education.

Kabby Hong grew up in a small town in Missouri, where he was the only Asian American as the son of South Korean immigrants. He did not like feeling different, and like many first-generation Americans, he did not see his experiences reflected in school. 
 
“When you're the only (one), you kind of stick out, and when you're a kid, you don't want to stick out,” he said.
 
Today, as Wisconsin’s first Asian American Teacher of the Year, the CU Boulder alumnus is more comfortable standing out and publicly advocating for more diverse, enriching curricula. 
 
Hong’s journey to teaching and advocacy was a winding one. 

An English teacher “opened up a whole different world” for him when she recommended he enter his essay in a statewide contest—and it won. That encouragement sent Hong on a path toward journalism and a successful early career in corporate public relations before he felt the call to teach.

“I knew that I wanted a profession that contributed to society, and I also wanted to be around the energy of young people,” he said. 

Attracted to CU Boulder’s reputation and its Master’s Plus (MA+) Teacher Licensure program, Hong graduated in 2001 with an MA+ in secondary English teaching. He secured a position in a sought-after middle school in Colorado before moving to Wisconsin and teaching English at Verona Area High School for the past 20 years. 

In 2021, Hong discovered he was one of the state’s Teachers of the Year amid a year characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic. He recalls ignoring a Zoom-meeting invite from someone he didn’t recognize, because the meeting was in the middle of his 3rd period teaching students in person and online. Then his principal called saying he needed to join the meeting and sent a colleague to cover class. 

Hong ducked into the hall and joined the meeting from his phone to find his principal, superintendent and the state superintendent waiting. 

“I was like ‘Oh my god, what is happening?’” he recalled. “The state superintendent congratulated me on being the Wisconsin Teacher of the Year on a call on my phone in the hallway all by myself. It’s the pandemic (experience) all rolled up into one.”

The pandemic also ushered in increased hate crimes and discrimination toward Asian Americans, and Hong used his platform to raise awareness about this troubling trend.
 
His work focuses on the lack of visibility for Asian Americans as authors, historical figures and contributors to American life in schools and its direct connection to intolerance toward Asian American communities.

Hong was selected from the small group of Teachers of the Year to represent his state and his work on the national stage. Last year, he attended the coveted National Teacher of the Year gathering in Washington D.C., his first time traveling since the start of the pandemic. He joined a diverse, supportive cohort of educators. 
 
“It was surreal,” Hong said. “Teachers are emotional people, and I think all of us had been in our own little bubbles for too long. To be able to be in a community of people where we were joyful with each other was incredibly rewarding.”
 
Back home, Hong continues to fight for change. He is part of a coalition seeking state legislation that would require Asian American history be taught in Wisconsin schools. Similar laws have passed or are under review in other states.
 
Hong is proud of the ways his curriculum has expanded with his students’ desires. His AP class once featured almost exclusively white male authors from the canon—Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Orwell—and it mirrored literature selections from his rural upbringing. 

“My curriculum is 180 degrees different (than at the start of my career),” he said. “It has to do with feeling more confident, but it’s also about growing with the kids. They are always ready for conversations about identity, and diversity is something they don't question.

“I love that teaching allows you to evolve, professionally and personally.”