When quarantine measures were adopted in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Anna Pham, a graduating senior at St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, Maryland, said she used the time “to self-reflect and work on bettering myself.”
“I took up new hobbies such as sewing, and I even built my own computer,” the 17-year-old Pham said. “It was hard to transition (to quarantine restrictions) at first, but I feel like my family and I got used to these new conditions easily.”
The new hobbies did not detract Pham from her studies. She graduates as the valedictorian in her class of 108 students at the Pallottine-sponsored school.
“I like math because I feel like it is something that I understand and learn easily, and I also like how there is only one answer. I also like computer science because I find technology interesting, and I like learning how it works,” Pham said.
The daughter of Phuong and Mai Pham of Laurel, Anna has an older sister, Tracy, and a younger brother, Benjamin. The family attends St. Mary of the Mills Parish in Laurel. Anna graduated from St. Mary of the Mills Elementary School.
“I chose to go to a Catholic school because I felt like that it was a good fit for me,” Pham said. “I was able to grow my faith through the various religion classes I took and also through the retreats Pallotti provided every year.”
Outside of her classes, Pham was a four-year member of the school’s varsity swim team. “I enjoy the competitiveness of it along with the feeling of accomplishment when I see that my time has improved,” she explained. She was also a member of her school’s varsity lacrosse team.
In addition, she is a member of Pallotti’s National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, and National Spanish Honor Society. She also earned her school’s Presidential Bronze Award in the ninth and 10th grades for her volunteer service.
Beyond her school community, Pham has volunteered as a teaching assistant at Our Lady of Vietnam Parish in Silver Spring, and is a Girl Scout currently working on her Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest achievement that can be obtained within the Girl Scouts, and less than 6 percent of Girl Scouts attain that honor.
Pham has been accepted to the University of Florida; the University of South Florida with a Green and Gold Presidential Award; the University of Maryland at College Park on a James Clark Legacy Scholarship for engineering students; Fordham University with a Fordham Loyola Scholarship; and University of Maryland Baltimore Campus on a General Merit Scholarship. She will attend UMBC.
“I recently committed to UMBC, and I will be majoring in pre-engineering,” she said. “I'm not sure of what exactly I want to do yet in the future, but overall my goal is to find a career that I will enjoy and will make me happy.”
