By: BHS Senior Spotlights Staff
March 13, 2024
Chosen for this week’s first senior spotlight is Alice Pham. Alice is intelligent, hardworking, and outgoing. Alice has spent her four years of high school playing basketball and soccer, along with three years of track and field. She also attends the Polaris Career Center for Construction Trades.
Q: What are your plans after high school?
A: “My plans after high school will be to enlist in the Navy and pursue my education through there. I chose this path because I can do multiple things like gaining experience and earning a degree. Hopefully, I’m able to start an engineering firm sometime in the next 20 years.”
Q: When you look back on your senior year, what will you remember most?
A: “I think I’ll remember my friends, teachers, and my experience playing sports. I’ll always remember my friends for the endless experiences I had with them. I’ll remember the impact my teachers had on me, whether I enjoyed their classes or not. My experience playing sports will be a forefront since it’s what I dedicated myself to in my free time. It taught me to respond in tense situations.”
Q: What advice would you give your freshman self?
A: “I like to think that I would tell my freshman self that you shouldn’t care what people say, don’t let people’s opinions hold you back, and choose what’s right for you, not what others think is right. This realization that people’s opinions didn’t matter all along had a huge effect on how I carried myself from junior year to now.”
Q: How do you manage your time with school, work, and sports?
A: “I didn’t manage anything because it was more of a sacrifice I made doing all of these things at once. Sports and work were voluntary commitments I made when I started; they had priority over schoolwork, sometimes. I was lucky enough to not have to work until senior year when I really had no classes. But, it was my mentality to push through all the stress of schoolwork because I loved doing sports. Those late night games meant I had to stay up late and work on assignments the day they were due.”
Q: What impact did the global COVID-19 pandemic have on your high school experience?
A: “COVID-19 had a major impact on my attention span and my inability to focus during class. It was worse when I contracted the virus. It changed my work ethic and the way I did school for my sophomore year. But, I had my support system to get me through it, making it feel like the pandemic didn’t hold me back too much.”
Q: If you could spend a whole day with any celebrity, who would it be and what would you do with them?
A: “If I could spend a day with one celebrity, it would definitely be Stephen Curry. He was the reason I had gotten into basketball, and his story is so amazing as well. I would golf with him, as it is his second sport, which he didn’t go pro in. I would ask him lots of questions like, ‘How did you overcome the major injuries and make a comeback to build an amazing legacy?’ Or, ‘What was it like being doubted, and how did it feel overcoming those doubts?’ Questions that he answered to get where he is today and questions that could help me carve a path like his, successful and a lasting legacy through charity works and foundations.”
Q: Describe your scariest encounter.
A: “Definitely the scariest encounter was when I had contracted COVID from a certain uneducated person on the safety of spreading the virus. It felt like death was taking over my body from head to toe. I was in an all-time-high stressful state. I missed serious schoolwork and was on the verge of failing classes. I felt so guilty then for also spreading it to my friend because I was unaware I was exposed to the virus. Definitely one of the top three worst moments of my life.”
Q: Of which of your accomplishments are you most proud?
A: “Of all my accomplishments, I’m very proud to have been a part of the Cleveland Clinic as part of my internship. They shaped me into becoming more social and more aware of people, other than myself. I befriended people who were different in terms of age and professions. There, I was really able to gather information about what were my options after high school since I was at a standstill. I will always remember being there, even on my bad days. My coworkers and the people around me made sure I left with a smile.”
Q: Describe senioritis.
A: “Senioritis for me is the need or feeling to be done, to be excited for leaving high school, and moving towards the next chapter of my life. I don’t want to be stuck doing homework and tests. I want to stay home, work more, and start preparing for what’s next, whether the next is more school, vacation, or just going to work.”
Q: Out of your entire school career, what teacher has been the biggest inspiration and/or influence to you?
A: “My biggest influences were easily my construction teacher, Mr. Busser and my English teacher, Mrs. Sullivan. Mr. Busser had given access to many amazing opportunities like my Summer internship and my current one with Lakeside Supply. He helped me make important decisions on my future after school, he was always there to help, and he made the class not feel like your typical class. Mrs. Sullivan was the same way; she wasn’t the typical teacher. She was someone who cared, and she gave us leniency on work that was past due in case we had an emergency. For her, it wasn’t grades but learning in an inclusive and engaging environment. These types of teachers and their actions teach you to slow down and to not stress over the little things in life.”
Thank you for your time, Alice. Have a great rest of your senior year, and good luck with your future in the Navy and in engineering.
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 