By Pham Tran
Junior Minh Ngoc Le can only gain more aura.
Being born with all kinds of artistic talents is impossible, but Le made all of the impossibilities in this world possible. As a result, she brought to the world a Le who is all-around perfect as an artist, designer, dancer and member that Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Baron Banner could never go without.
With only a pen in her hands, the cute drawings and aesthetic fonts that she created on a blank piece of paper became the seed that she planted into the creative world. Ever since that day, the seed has now grown into a stunning tree full of achievements and hard work.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been very creative. If I was in a group project, I would never do the research part first. I would always do the art part first,” Le said.
Class projects students often thought of as boring and a waste of time is where Le’s creative powers are shown, turning the situation around for the better. Plain-looking presentations are in good hands with Le since. She will give them a new appearance by adding cute fonts and designs using the Canva platform, of which she is extremely skilled.
“I would go to school Monday through Friday, and then after school, I would have dance practice. So that usually takes up a lot of my time. On Tuesdays, at lunch, I have a meeting for my club, KIWIN’S; that’s something I’m involved in. And then on Thursdays, I have meetings for Girls Who Code,” Le said.
Le lives a busy life with her packed schedule, in which a note-taking and productivity app where users can unlimitedly customize called Notion comes in handy. Her Notion is organized with different sections and tabs such as weekly schedules, to-do lists and activities she can easily toggle between.
Le does not only perform her designs digitally but also physically. She can give off the Minh Le’s touch on her scrapbooks or even something as the summer bucket lists; she can turn them all pretty. Doing the arts by hand is more time-consuming, but Le enjoys it all.
“When I’m in dance practice, my mind only focuses on dance. So that takes my mind off of other aspects of life,” Le said.
After a long school day, you can find Le dancing at practice with her team to de-stress herself. Le lets her movements tell the story when she is dancing, and all she has to do is emerge herself into the music.
Although she is a hip-hop dancer on the FVHS Varsity Dance team, Le listens to all genres of music. Whenever she falls in love with a song, she will play it on a loop until she gets sick of it and moves on to the next.
On Spotify, Le has three main playlists. One is on country music, where Zach Byan dominates most of the playlist. The second one is a hip-hop playlist, which is where her love for rap is located. The last playlist is something that she uses to calm herself every day, the chill playlist.
Creative, passionate and empathetic are three of the many loving adjectives used to describe Le.
“If I’m passionate about something, then I’ll work hard to achieve my goal in that section,” Le said.
Le puts herself in everyone’s shoes and imagines herself in their situation, even through watching movies or TikTok videos. She spreads her kindness and maintains her warm smile that always radiates positivity.