When CJ Liang was accepted as a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda three years ago, it was the fulfillment of a dream shared by him and his late mother Lily, who died in 2017 after a 12-year battle with colon cancer.

“Before my mom passed, she wanted to know that I would be in good hands… She knew that Prep would help me mature as a man, a son, a student and most importantly, as a child of God,” Liang, a member of Georgetown Prep’s class of 2021 said in a recorded message for the school’s recent virtual gala. 

Liang had been attending a public high school. One of his best friends, T.J. Williams was a Prep student, and “she (my mom) really trusted him… She wanted to make sure after she passed, that I had a strong core group of friends that shared a similar mindset as me.”

His parents, both immigrants from China, had discussed his future schooling before Lily died, and after those conversations, his father Charlie Liang – now a retired chief technology officer for a private firm – resolved to do everything he could to see that CJ attended Prep. CJ was likewise determined to attend the school, and worked hard on his application there and studied long hours for his Secondary School Admission Test.

“The fact that Prep was God-centered meant everything to my family. It was a place where I didn’t have to be afraid (about) what I believed in and my religious identity. I could find people with like minds… and we could share that sense of brotherhood through God,” said CJ Liang, a nondenominational Christian.

CJ Liang was accepted as a new student at Georgetown Prep, and he said that on his first day of campus as a sophomore there, “It felt like I was at home… (that) this is where I belong.”

Liang has an older sister, Ellie Ray, who just had a baby son and is on maternity leave as a project manager for Booz Allen Hamilton. His father remarried after Lily’s death, and CJ Liang now has a stepmother, Jingping, and a stepsister, Rachel Pang, who is a pre-med student at Emory University in Atlanta; and a stepbrother, Ryan Pang, who is an eighth grader now and will be a freshman at Prep next year.

Reflecting on his mother’s legacy and what he learned from her example, CJ Liang said, “She was probably my best friend.”

He added, “She was an extremely faithful Christian… Definitely the main thing I learned (from her) is always stay grounded in God. She always told me life has so many trials and tribulations, and the only way you can get through that is through God.”

Through all her cancer treatments, CJ Liang said his mother “was as normal as anybody could be. She woke up with a smile on her face, did all the chores at home, cooked dinner for the family every night, drove me to baseball practice.”

Noting that it’s not easy for a high schooler or middle schooler to “see your mom go through endless chemotherapy sessions and surgeries and clinical trials,” he said that “when my sister and I knew my mom was going to pass away, it was her we were turning to for comfort.”

At Prep, Liang said he found a special brotherhood, where fellow students cared for each other and liked to stay after school and spend time together. That tight-knit community extends from the classroom through their shared extracurricular activities, said Liang, who was a pitcher on the Hoyas’ varsity baseball team.

“We’re all there for each other,” he said.

Liang said he enjoyed the academic rigor of his Jesuit education at Georgetown Prep and also the personal aspect of teachers always being willing to help students.

He served as president of the Prep Ambassadors, helping to welcome prospective students there. “I try to create an environment that replicates the same experience I received when going into Prep,” he said.

In all three of his years at Georgetown Prep, Liang has volunteered with Best Buddies, playing basketball or other games with youth with special needs, watching movies and doing arts and crafts with them.

“Best Buddies reminds me a lot of the experiences I had with my mom,” he said. “The kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities are able to show up every weekend with a smile on their face, ready to hang out.”

Describing how their spirit inspires him, Liang said his volunteer work with Best Buddies involves “just being a friend, being there for them. Having that personal connection with them brings light into my day as well.”

Liang praised how Georgetown Prep’s teachers and students were able to “make the most of the unique situation we were in” during the pandemic, when classes went from being virtual to hybrid to in-person again, and the school community adopted strict safety practices that limited some school activities and traditional social gatherings. For example, the school’s prom had to be held outside. 

“Prep really stepped up. They did everything they could to make this year as normal as possible,” he said.

The Georgetown Prep senior described what a special feeling it was “just to be back in the classroom, seeing each other face-to-face,” and he added, “We’ve been through everything together. There’s nothing we can’t overcome… A lot of sacrifices had to be made. I’m especially proud of the senior class, who stepped up to be leaders for the school.”

This fall, he will be attending Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he plans to study accounting.

Interviewed before his Georgetown Prep graduation, Liang’s thoughts again turned to his mother, and he said she would be with him in spirit that day.

“My dream was for her to watch my high school graduation. That was her dream as well. Although she won’t be there physically, I know for a fact on May 22 she’ll be walking across the stage with me,” he said.