Andrew Yang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Andrew Yang
|
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yang in 2023
|
|||||||||||
| Chair of the Forward Party | |||||||||||
| Assumed office July 28, 2022 Serving with Christine Todd Whitman and Michael S. Willner
|
|||||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||
| Born | January 13, 1975 Schenectady, New York, U.S. |
||||||||||
| Political party | Forward (since 2021) | ||||||||||
| Other political affiliations |
Democratic (1995–2021) | ||||||||||
| Spouse |
Evelyn Lu
(m. 2011) |
||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||
| Education | Brown University (BA) Columbia University (JD) |
||||||||||
| Occupation |
|
||||||||||
| Signature |  |
||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 楊安澤 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 杨安泽 | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. He is also an author and a political commentator. Yang ran for president in 2020 as a Democrat. He also ran for mayor of New York City in 2021. Today, he is a leader of the Forward Party.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Andrew Yang was born on January 13, 1975, in Schenectady, New York. His parents moved to the U.S. from Taiwan in the 1960s. His family is of Hoklo Taiwanese background.
Yang's father earned a PhD in physics. He worked at big companies like IBM and General Electric. He even created over 50 new inventions! His mother got a master's degree in statistics. She worked with computers at a university before becoming an artist. Andrew also has an older brother named Lawrence, who is a psychology professor.
Andrew grew up in Somers, a town in New York. He went to Phillips Exeter Academy, a special boarding school in New Hampshire. After finishing high school in 1992, he went to Brown University. There, he studied economics and political science. He graduated in 1996. Then, he went to Columbia Law School and became a lawyer in 1999.
Business Career
After law school, Yang started working as a corporate lawyer in New York City. In 2000, he helped start a website called Stargiving. It was made for people to raise money for good causes. The website closed in 2002. Yang then worked at a healthcare startup for a few years.
In 2009, Yang began working on a new idea. He wanted to create a nonprofit group called Venture for America (VFA). He officially started VFA in 2011. This group aimed to find and train young business leaders. These leaders would then start new businesses in cities that needed economic help. VFA started with $200,000. It trained 40 graduates in 2012 and 69 in 2013. VFA grew quickly and even got attention from the Obama administration.
On March 5, 2020, Yang announced a new nonprofit group. It was called Humanity Forward Foundation. This group works to promote ideas like Universal Basic Income (UBI), ranked voting, and data privacy. Yang also announced that Humanity Forward would give $500,000 in UBI to people in Hudson, New York. This was to show how UBI could help people.
Later, Humanity Forward spent $1 million to give $1,000 each month to 500 low-income families in the Bronx. This was during a time of crisis. Yang's group also partnered with The $1K Project. This online group helps find families who need financial support.
Political Career
Andrew Yang became a well-known candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. His main idea was a universal basic income (UBI). This means giving every adult $1,000 a month. He suggested this as a way to help people whose jobs might be lost to new technology. Many people say Yang helped make the idea of UBI more popular.
News reporters called Yang a "dark horse candidate." This means he was not well-known at first. But he became a major competitor in the race. Yang took part in seven of the eight main Democratic debates. His supporters were called the "Yang Gang." This group included many famous people. Yang stopped his presidential campaign on February 11, 2020.
After his campaign, Yang became a political commentator for CNN. He also started the Humanity Forward nonprofit. Then, he ran in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. He finished fourth in that race.
On October 4, 2021, Andrew Yang announced he was leaving the Democratic Party. He decided to become an independent. He said he felt "more comfortable trying to fix the system than being a part of it." Later in October 2021, Yang started the Forward Party. This is a new political party that aims to find common ground.
Personal Life
.jpg)
Yang married Evelyn Yang (née Lu) in 2011. They have two sons together.
The Yang family lives in an apartment in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. They also own a home in New Paltz, New York.
Awards and Recognition
- In 2015, he was named a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.
- In 2011, Yang was honored by "Champions of Change." This White House program recognized people doing great work in their communities.
- In 2020, Yang received the 2021 Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Public Service. This award is given by the Vilcek Foundation.
Andrew Yang Quotes
- "Overnight successes are generally years in the making. And most progress is made in isolation, far from the public eye."
- "Mistakes are acceptable if they’re the result of moving forward."
- "I’ve always believed that talking about something is not the same as doing something about it."
- "People can grow from adversity as much as they do from prosperity."
Images for kids
-
Yang meeting with President Obama at the White House in 2012
-
Yang makes a speech in New Hampshire in January 2019. His book, The War on Normal People, is displayed.
-
Yang speaks with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
-
Yang's supporters form a crowd at the Liberty and Justice Celebration in Des Moines, Iowa. Yang is visible in the background.
-
Logo for Yang's 2021 mayoral campaign
-
Yang speaking for Wharton Undergraduates in Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania in April 2023
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
See Also
In Spanish: Andrew Yang para niños
- Taiwanese Americans
