Daphne Wang is a current junior at North Hagerstown High School involved in the International Baccalaureate program, her school’s Key Club, and the academic quiz team. But on top of Wang’s busy schedule, she has just been elected to serve on the Washington County Board of Education as the 2024-2025 student representative.

As the student representative, which is a yearlong non-voting position held by a high school student, Wang, 16, hopes to build a foundation for future students holding the position by creating a stronger countywide community and increasing transportation availability.

“I am only here for a year, so I want to build a foundation,” Wang said.

Although she has been elected by the Washington County Association of Student Councils, Wang said she did not fully understand what the student representative did on the school board until this year. She is the State Legislative Affairs co-coordinator for the Maryland Student Councils Association and met student representatives from different counties in Maryland.

“I was flabbergasted,” Wang recalled. “These students get to represent their peers across the county, they get to talk to so many people, and they get to meet so many people.”

When Wang first learned about the position, she said it “opened [her] eyes to the disparities we see across counties in Maryland.” These disparities are something she wants other students to understand.

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To begin building the foundation and importance of the student member of the board position, Wang wants to help other students understand the position and its impact on students throughout the county and the state.

As a first step, Wang wants to begin to foster a community both within the individual schools and between the many schools in the county.  Wang said that right now, she feels like there are “caged-in school communities,” and she hopes to promote a cohesive county identity between all schools in Washington County.

Along with promoting county unity, Wang thinks one of the biggest issues facing students is a lack of transportation, something she hopes to change.

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Wang said that she got into student council freshman year because she would tag along to meetings with a friend who she carpooled with. However, she said she quickly found how rewarding student government could be and decided to continue following her “passion” for student government. She is now the student government vice president.

However, with all her after-school activities, Wang needed transportation home. While she has a license now, she used to have to organize carpools to get home since her parents work full-time.

Wang hopes to work with the school board to add more transportation options for students throughout the county who want to get involved in their schools.

Graham Snyder was the student representative for the Washington County Board of Education for the 2023-2024 school year. He also was from North High and focused on increasing mental health resources in schools as well as affordable and accessible drivers’ education classes for students.

Wang’s first board meeting will be on July 16.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: North Hagerstown High’s Daphne Wang voted to board of education