By Rebecca Do
Connections are important; it gives an opportunity to help others and gives one insight. For Brian Pham, connections helped him find out about Baron News.
Senior Brian Pham has been involved with Baron Banner since he was a sophomore, which is two, going on three years after he found out about the newspaper through a friend.
“I decided to apply because I was interested in designing the newspapers, but I also applied for photography and newspaper writing, so I branched out into those two,” Pham said. “I also applied because I thought it was interesting and fun.”
Pham was the former lifestyle editor his junior year, and is now acting as the designer-in-chief his senior year. Pham is also taking a multitude of Advanced Placement (AP) classes as a continuation of the courses he took last year一And if you thought that excelling at school wasn’t enough, he is also involved in KIWIN’S and National Technical Honors Society.
“I’m also on board for KIWIN’S…I’m secretary and I also have a divisional position as bulletin editor, and I’m also in a club called National Technical Honors Society [as] the treasurer,” he said.
Pham revealed that he enjoyed his time in KIWIN’S the most out of all of his extracurrciularsbecause he had been involved in it for so long. As a service-based club, he often spent his weekends helping out his community at service events.
When he’s not designing or participating in clubs, he’s playing video games or reading. Pham takes pleasure in playing role-playing games and enjoys reading manga, whether it be battle shounen, romance or slice of life.
Pham is currently in his senior year, a time to think about college and the future and to figure out what you want to do with your life as your last year of school flies by in the blink of an eye.
For Pham, he’s planning to apply to schools only in California, wanting to stay closer to home as tuition is cheaper. A practical major like business is what he wants to study for his undergraduate degree.
“[University of California, Irvine] (UCI) is my dream school right now,” Pham stated. “Other than that, I’m applying to the UCs; UCI, UC [Los Angeles], UC Berkeley and for [California State Universities] (CSUS), Long Beach, [other] Cal States and SCSU.”
Balancing a challenging AP course load, journalism, extracurricular activities, clubs atop applying for colleges this year takes grit and determination, and Pham seems to have what it takes.