Jolene Yang, School Counselor

I was born in Laos and am the oldest of 11 children. My family immigrated to the United States in 1979. We were sponsored by a wonderful family in Wilmette, Illinois where we lived until 1981 and then later settled in Wisconsin.

I graduated from Wausau West High School in 1992. From there, I was accepted into the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point where I graduated with a Bachelor in Communications in 1996. It was at that point in time that I found my passion in life, school counseling. In 1998, I earned my Masters in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

In 1991, I met my husband and we have been together ever since. We have three beautiful children ages 15, 6 1/2 and 5.   We’ve lived in MN for 11 years now. We enjoy archery, camping, and fishing. In my limited free time I enjoy reading, watching Korean dramas, shopping, and spending quality time with my family.

Professionally, I’ve been with the St. Paul Public School District for 10 years and 18 years in the School Counseling field.   The majority of my career has been at the elementary level. For a few years, I was a PBIS district coach. This is my fourth year with Open World Learning Community and counseling at the secondary level.   It has been a great experience getting to know the school, students and parents. I look forward to continuing my job as Open’s school counselor.