Fresno State Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Phong Yang reflects on his journey from a first-generation college student to a university leader. Images courtesy of Fresno State

Phong Yang’s connection to Fresno State began long before he became the university’s vice president of student affairs and enrollment management.

Yang arrived in Fresno at age 14 after a childhood that took his family from Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand, then to France and eventually the United States. His parents settled in the Central Valley, where relatives and members of the Hmong community helped the family establish a new life. They leased two acres in Fresno to grow Asian vegetables, with Yang and his siblings working alongside them while attending school.

A counselor at Clovis High School later encouraged Yang to apply to Fresno State, where he enrolled as a first-generation college student in 1990. More than three decades later, the university remains central to both his career and family. Yang met his wife there, and both earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fresno State. Their son and daughter are also Fresno State graduates.

In this Executive Profile, Yang discusses the Central Valley’s role in his family’s story, the relationships that shaped his career and his commitment to expanding access to higher education.

Can you talk a bit about your history in the Central Valley?

Following the Vietnam War, my family sought refuge in France in 1977. I was 5 years old when we arrived and lived there until I completed middle school. During our departure from the refugee camp in Thailand, my oldest brother was separated from the rest of our family and eventually immigrated to the United States. He later sponsored us, allowing the rest of our family to join him in the summer of 1986, thus marking this year as my 40th year in the United States.

My parents initially settled with my brother in Orange County, but soon learned that Fresno was home to a large Hmong community, including many of our relatives. They also discovered that the Central Valley offered opportunities for families like ours — people with little or no formal education but a lifetime of farming experience — to build a stable future through agriculture. At the age of 14, I arrived in Fresno and enrolled as a freshman at Clovis High School.

Farming was all my parents had ever known. They leased two acres of land in Fresno and grew Asian vegetables, working tirelessly to provide for our family of six. Like many children in immigrant families, my siblings and I shared in that responsibility. I learned to drive a tractor and plow fields at an early age.

As graduation approached, my high school counselor encouraged me to apply to Fresno State and submitted an Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) application on my behalf. I was admitted and began my journey as a first-generation college student in the fall of 1990.

The Central Valley shaped my character, inspired my career in higher education, and continues to be the place that keeps my family connected. It is, and always will be, home.

What is your favorite part about working at Fresno State?

Fresno State has always been my home away from home. I love this university because it believed in me, or more accurately, because the people believed in me. Throughout my journey as both a student and, later, a staff member, I have been surrounded by individuals who invested in my success.

I often say that Fresno State has given me everything I have in life, and I truly mean it. It is where I met my wife while we were undergraduate students. Together, we earned our bachelor’s and master’s degrees here, and this fall we will begin our doctoral journeys at the same institution that first opened so many doors for us.

What was the best advice you ever received?

The best advice I ever got is to be kind because it doesn’t cost a thing.

As a kid, what was your dream job?

As a child, I dreamed of becoming a commercial airline pilot. Even today, I find myself captivated by the flight deck of an aircraft. There is something remarkable about the precision, skill, and engineering required to lift a 200,000-pound machine into the sky and safely guide it back to earth.

Some of my favorite videos to watch are cockpit recordings of takeoffs and landings. That childhood fascination has never really gone away.