Superintendent’s Spotlight: Wen Long Yang, Yale University

WARWICK — Not too long ago Wen Long Yang was the new kid. He came to Warwick Valley High School as a sophomore, a downstate transplant who dreaded the idea of starting all over in a new community and a strange new school.
He imagined the worst. Eating lunch alone, becoming the primary target in frenzied games of dodge ball, being an outsider. He was scared.
That first day in 2015 was a hard one, he recalls, but not nearly as terrible as he had feared. The teachers and students, he said, were friendly and approachable, helping him learn his way around campus and transition to life up here in “the country.”
As the days and weeks went by he met other students and discovered that Warwick, a place that seemed so scary when his parents first told him of the family’s plan to move, was a pretty great place.
And the high school?
“I was making friends with people,” he says. “And that’s beautiful.”
He and his new friends went to Applefest in the fall and the Firemen’s Carnival in the summer, and Wen Long became known around school for his warm, accepting nature and unwavering work ethic.
His parents opened a restaurant, and the family became part of Warwick’s multi-textured fabric.
And by his last day as a Warwick Valley student, a warm June day just a few weeks ago, Warwick had become home, and leaving this place, a place he had come to so reluctantly but would soon leave to study math and business at Yale University, would be even harder.
In his speech as Senior Speaker at Warwick Valley High School’s graduation, he put it this way:
“There is a universal truth we all have to face whether we want to or not: Everything eventually ends. As much as I’ve looked forward to this day, I’ve always disliked endings, whether it be the last day of summer, the final chapter of a great book, parting ways with a close friend. But we cannot deny one fact that stays true. Endings are inevitable,“ he said.
But, Wen Long has learned, endings are simply one part of a tale that begins and ends and then begins all over again.
“With every ending comes an even greater beginning. With every single closing door comes a new doorknob to pull open,” he said. “With every beautiful whisper of goodbye comes a new bright hello. And with every closing of a wonderful book comes the excitement of unfolding the adventures of a new one.”
Each week, Warwick Valley School District Superintendent Dr. David Leach shines the “The Superintendent’s Spotlight” on one of Warwick Valley’s students. “Superintendent’s Spotlight” features students who reach goals, face challenges and are role models to their peers.