By Hien Bui
It is the fourth day of school and Katie Vo is wearing a graphic t-shirt from her Jamaican travels. It features a big yellow smiley face wearing a headwrap that seems to grin wider when anyone reads the pun above its head. She cracks a joke with Mr. Ziebarth, resident Baron Banner advisor and thumbless extraordinaire, over it and settles in for her first class of the day.
The fourth day of school means a lot of things. It’s when the well of new clothes from back to school shopping begins to run dry and people start digging out the sweatpants and comfort hoodie. It’s the end of the syllabus week, the “chill” teacher and the “model” students. It’s when the dress code policy gets real and we all start measuring our tank top straps again. An end to pretense.
With Vo, it’s not like that.
A conversation with her comes off as the most natural thing on the planet no matter who she’s talking to. You get the sense that she is never anything but her most authentic self. There is a realness that comes across in each interaction. You get the sense that you’re experiencing something (and someone) amazing.
Vo’s time at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) has followed a metaphorical and physical circle. She’s been involved in orchestra, Associated Student Body (ASB), volleyball, vocal music and, as the latest addition, Baron Banner. Following a map of her extracurriculars would take you around the Bowl, to the outermost reaches of the bungalows, across the angelic murmuring pouring outside the choir room and basically give you a complete tour of our school and its students.
Hearing Vo talk about her music, leadership and athletic experiences, one might wonder how she finds the courage to branch herself out to such different (yet equally time consuming) programs. She attributes her curious nature to how she’s managed to seek out so many experiences.
“I think that word describes me perfectly like my friends, my family—even my teachers would say the same thing,” Vo said. “On the first day of school last year, I took an ROP class. I kept asking so many questions that my teacher brought a book in and was like, ‘Because Katie was so curious, I had to bring this in and show her.”
Vo subscribes to the “do what you love” philosophy with everything she tries her hand at. She takes the classes that interest her, tries not to practice her hobbies for the sake of practicing and knows when her time and passion are done with something.
Vo returned to orchestra for her senior year after a departure after freshman year. In the interim, she had explored another avenue of music during her sophomore year with the vocal music program’s Les Belles Voix, the intermediate, all-female choir. She spent her junior year working with ASB to bring a sense of community to the distance learning FVHS spent the 2020-2021 school year under, but has since left the program.
“There’s a pressure to be in a program continuously because we’re building up to, like, college applications and all that—the stress of having to show consistency for college. That was…a mental barrier I had to break and say like, ‘College is not the endgame. I am here, right now, in high school. There are a lot of experiences I can learn and grow from,’” Vo said.
While any senior can attest to how bittersweet this school year, Vo still feels she has had many highlights to her high school experience. She looks back on her time with an introspection that inspires you to find the best out of your own situation.
“[In high school], more than ever, you’re exposed to more people,” Vo said. “These four years are so important to our growth and development. This is the age where we grow the most…I just got to see more and just kind of allow myself to be vulnerable too. That’s how we make connections and those connections just continue and build on.”
On any given day, with her killer fashion sense and immense curiosity, Vo is one of Baron Banner’s brightest additions.