Bao Pham ‘22 is a well-loved member of the senior council, leaving Kent this year for Columbia University majoring in political science.

When entering Kent as a freshman, Bao was only thirteen years old, leaving his home country, Vietnam, seeking new challenges, knowledge, and independence. Though the Kent school courses were drastically different from the day school Bao used to attend, he adapted to Kent’s high workload very quickly. He focused on his participation in class and preparations outside class. “Kent’s rigorous academics really pushed me to a new level and helped me to be a better student,” Bao reflected. 

 Bao enjoys very much living and studying in the kind environment of Kent and with people who support this atmosphere — friends in dorms, teammates, and classmates, who all collaborated and helped him.

While excelling in academics, Bao is also the leader of the soccer club at kent. He scheduled most of the practices for the team during soccer and non-soccer season, playing both indoors and outdoors. Amazed by Kent’s soccer program, he is grateful that he can train with other quality players. He says proudly that, through the practices that he scheduled, “each player has improved a lot. They are getting more experience, while playing with harder teams, like Taft and Deerfield, etc.”

Bao would love to see Kent providing students with more and more “real-life, real-time” opportunities in the future years, such as internships. He thinks students at Kent could benefit from the broad alumni network that Kent accumulated over the years, gaining more real-life experiences before getting into college, thus excelling after. “Hopefully they will have it in a couple of years”, Bao smiled.

Asked for advice for students who will be at Kent in the future, Bao said: “If you have a passion, work very hard for it. Enjoy Kent, it will go by very fast! Kent changed my life. Without Kent, I won’t be the person who I am now.”