Sitting on a dock during her senior photo session, senior Kenzie Vo poses for the camera. Vo will attend the University of Texas at Austin next year and major in mechanical engineering after graduating as Valedictorian on May 23 at 2 p.m. at the HEB Center. “At the beginning, I wanted to be valedictorian just for the glory,” Vo said. “And then I realized that’s not what’s important. It’s what you can give back to all those people who have given so much up for you. I have found fulfillment in that.” Photo by Natalie Cohen

By the time they finally pulled her into Sloan’s office after sitting in the lobby, she had gone numb. She mindlessly sat across from him at his desk and waited as he cleared his throat to tell her the word that took her four long years to earn the title of: Valedictorian. Her ears pricked at the sound, but she calmly nodded her head, said thank you, and left the room.

“Then I called my mom, and that’s when I actually started crying,” senior Kenzie Vo said. “I said ‘Mom, this is what we’ve been working for.’ She’s like, ‘you did it,’ and I was like no, it was us. It was all us.”

After graduating at the top of the Cedar Park High School graduating class of 2025, Vo will attend the University of Texas at Austin with a major in mechanical engineering. Her journey to the No. 1 rank in her class began at a young age, as soon as she found her love for learning.

“I don’t think I would have [become Valedictorian] if I didn’t like school,” Vo said. “School gets so hard sometimes, but I just threw myself into it and I wanted to do my best, and a lot of the time, it was for my family.”

Vo’s reasons for the work she put into her studies and extracurriculars changed as the ‘why’ behind her success evolved.

“At the beginning, I wanted to be valedictorian just for the glory,” Vo said. “And then I realized that’s not what’s important. It’s what you can give back to all those people who have given so much up for you. I have found fulfillment in that. A lot of [my dedication] stemmed from the gratitude and all the opportunities that [my family] has given me. My dad is an immigrant. My mom had a hard past, and I just wanted to take what they’ve given me and multiply it. I don’t think that I would have been able to do this if it was all for myself.”

As Valedictorian, Vo will give a speech at graduation on May 23 and is eligible to have her first year of college tuition waived. She narrowed down her choice of major by taking a variety of classes in high school and finding what interested her most.

“In my math and science classes, I find myself diving further [into my studies],” Vo said. “At night time, I sometimes watch random YouTube videos or go on random searches on Google for articles about topics. That sounds so nerdy, but I just find it so fascinating. [My workload] has been very difficult. But despite the difficulties, I still find myself signing up for the classes, and it’s been rewarding.”

Although she is unsure of a specific future job, Vo plans to get involved in several collegiate programs to expose herself to different career pathways. Over the summer, Vo will participate in a paid apprenticeship at UT Austin, where she will work with a mentor in a research lab and present a poster project to a board of officials.

“I’m really excited to get involved with the apprenticeship because I think it’ll give me a lot of hands-on experience,” Vo said. “I like [the idea of] having a solid foundation [in my education] and then being able to spread it out to a lot of places, which is kind of why I chose mechanical engineering. There’s facets of mechanical engineering that you can spread out to a bunch of different kinds of engineering.”

Besides math and science, Vo is involved in UIL English and will compete in spelling at the state UIL competition on May 19 after advancing past district and region. The spelling contest consists of three parts and tests competitors on words from several languages.

“It’s so scary, because I love [spelling],” Vo said. “I will procrastinate studying for other things by studying for spelling. I’ve learned some of the material so much that I look forward to doing the test. It’s greatly improved my efficiency in studying in other classes. And it’s like a break from all the math and science; spelling is a completely different avenue that I can study and take a brain break with.”

If she could do high school all over again, Vo said she would start participating in UIL English sooner and find a way to continue her involvement in basketball, which she played during her freshman and sophomore year.

“You felt really connected to your entire school [when playing a school sport],” Vo said. “I’ve never felt so much school spirit. [But], I knew that academics was probably going to be what would help me most in the future, rather than sports and athletics, especially since I’m a little bit smaller. That’s when I started to veer off towards thinking of my career after high school.”

After serving as freshman girls captain and making the varsity team her junior year, Vo withdrew from basketball and focused more on her academics. She is currently involved in National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society, Key Club, Investment Club, she is the treasurer for Spanish Honor Society and is the president of both Mu Alpha Theta and Science National Honor Society. This year, she joined the robotics club, where her decision to pursue mechanical engineering was solidified.

“I didn’t know anyone [in robotics], and I felt like they were a very close-knit group of people,” Vo said. “But, I decided to just join in. I was put on the team with the least amount of experience, and it ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me. No one knew what they were doing, so everyone had to contribute. Robotics was a big time commitment, but I enjoyed it. I feel like when you’re in a big commitment, but you enjoy it, then that’s when you know you’re in the right place.”

Her best advice for incoming freshmen is to learn how to study and stay true to themselves and what they want to get out of high school.

“Don’t forget your ‘why,’” Vo said. “You set out with goals, so make your plan and stick to it. Don’t let yourself down. Don’t let your family down. You can do it. I was afraid for so long, and good came out of it when I wasn’t anymore. Every time it gets hard, I just think about how not many people have these opportunities, and how my parents didn’t get these opportunities. I wonder what would happen if I wasn’t able to do all this. I think the best things come when you don’t do it for yourself.”