Adversity is not overcome alone. This simple but timeless truth represents countless human experiences. From classrooms to communities, the pattern holds: progress often starts when someone chooses to believe in another person before that person believes in themselves. For Julie Yang, MCPS Board of Education member and Montgomery County Council candidate, this could not be more personal. Like Julie Yang, students all across Montgomery County can relate to this feeling — the quiet weight of being overlooked and wondering whether anyone notices their struggles, their strife.
Without the early foundation of kindergarten and still unable to count to 20 at age seven, the odds were stacked against Yang from the start. Yet, all it took to defy the odds that would have denied her a fair chance was a helping hand.
“I know that, I for one, sometimes feel like the school system focuses more on herding [students] out the doors, than guiding them to their goals,” WCHS senior Aaron Zheng said. “Instead of expecting so much from students with doing little to guide them, they ought to be more intentional with extending a helping hand to those left behind.”
Yang was born and raised in Wuhan, China, where educational opportunities were limited, and many girls in her community did not continue their education past elementary school. Her teachers placed her in remedial classes, leaving her with few academic prospects beyond middle school. That is, until Yang’s second-grade teacher began providing extra support before and after school. Yang remained resentful at first, but her teacher’s commitment and belief in her potential became a turning point in her development. By the end of the year, Yang had broken through barriers that had once seemed unbreakable. She credits that experience with reshaping not just her academic path, but her entire outlook on what education can and should do.
“For the first time, I felt someone cared,” Yang said. “Someone believed in me — and even when I was stuck inside doing worksheets while the other kids played, that feeling kept me going.”
That feeling carried her far. Yang went on to pursue higher education in the United States, where her early experiences deepened into a lifelong commitment to access, equity and real support for students. She later joined MCPS as a college and career advisor, putting her face-to-face with students navigating the same crossroads she once did. She launched career initiatives and helped students earn prestigious scholarships — then took her advocacy further, founding the Village Initiative to connect special education families with school resources and nonprofits.
“Ten of us moved out of the [remedial] class to the regular class that year. I think that changed my life trajectory,” Yang said. “So I thought to myself, I would like to do the same for my students as she did for me.”
Elected to the Board of Education in 2022 and to be board president in 2024, Yang has since set her sights on the Montgomery County Council District 1 seat. Her platform centers on economic development and aligning schools with real workforce opportunities. Yang’s mindset is simple: a stronger economy needs better-prepared students, and better-prepared students need a community that invests in them. Yang believes that this style of cyclical economic development and academic investment will lift more than just test scores — it will reshape what students believe is possible for themselves. What makes Yang’s story unique is the fact that, to her, policy was never an abstraction, instead, it was and is personal. The challenges students face in MCPS are the same lessons that Yang learned decades ago: a fair chance, given at the right moment, can change everything.
“If you don’t say anything, nothing will change,” Yang said. “But if you speak up, we can work on it together.”
