GULF SHORES, Ala. — Ana Vo has a plan for her senior year at Gulf Shores High School, and it is packed: as many Advanced Placement classes as she can fit, a STEM career pathway, a coding project and a spot she hopes to earn on the school’s robotics competition team.
The Gulf Shores senior wants to major in chemical engineering or materials science in college, and she is using the school’s AP classes and hands-on STEM courses to get a head start. Along the way, she has become an example of what “women in STEM” looks like in practice at a small coastal high school.
What stands out about Vo is not only the size of her schedule but how she handles it. She keeps her focus on the subjects she finds genuinely interesting and leans on family, friends and teachers when the workload gets heavy.
Ana Vo at a Glance
- School: Gulf Shores High School, Class of 2027
- Intended major: Chemical engineering or materials science
- Coursework: AP classes including AP Chemistry, plus STEM pathway courses in environmental engineering and computer science principles
- Activities: Robotics program since ninth grade; plans to join the competition team this year
- College goals: Georgia Tech or another selective top university
- Career goal: Biochemist or chemical engineer who applies research to real-world problems in her community
Building a Schedule Around STEM
Vo’s course load pairs traditional AP classes with Gulf Shores’ career pathway curriculum, which lets students take a sequence of classes aimed at a particular field.
Her STEM pathway courses include environmental engineering and computer science principles. She is also learning the basics of coding through an interactive project. Last year’s version of that project asked students to design and build a hurricane-resistant house using online software that applies laser cutouts and other coding principles, a fitting assignment for students who live a few blocks from the Gulf of Mexico.
Advanced Placement courses, run nationally by the College Board, give high school students a chance to take college-level classes. Students who earn qualifying scores on the AP exams given each May, which are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, can often receive college credit or placement into higher-level courses, depending on the university. For a student aiming at a demanding engineering program, those classes can also show admissions officers that she is ready for rigorous coursework.
Finding Her Niche Through Robotics
When Vo started high school, she set out to try a little of everything to find where her interests really lay. That search led her to Gulf Shores’ robotics program.
What hooked her was the hands-on learning: designing, building and testing rather than only reading about how things work. This year, she plans to take the next step and join the school’s robotics competition team.
“I want to immerse myself in that kind of environment. This kind of team collaboration will really help me in the future,” Vo said.
Competitive robotics asks students to design and program machines to complete specific challenges, usually on tight deadlines and in teams. Students split up mechanical, electrical, programming and planning work, which mirrors the way engineers collaborate on real projects.
Where Chemistry Meets Engineering
Vo also finds AP Chemistry especially engaging. She said she is drawn to the kind of learning the class labs provide, what she called the “intersection of chemistry and engineering, … the composition and changing different factors” in experiments.
That interest lines up closely with the fields she hopes to study. Chemical engineers design processes that turn raw materials into useful products, from fuels and medicines to plastics and food. Materials scientists study how the structure of a material affects its properties, work that underpins everything from stronger building materials to better batteries and electronics.
Vo said she hopes to keep doing research on topics that interest her and eventually become a biochemist or chemical engineer, applying her research “to a real-world solution to impact my community.”
Handling the Workload
Asked how she juggles it all, Vo was candid that it is not always easy.
“There are some overwhelming moments, but just having your main motivation is what really keeps me going, just knowing that these AP classes will prepare me for college,” Vo said. “And just having a really great support system, like family and friends and teachers as well, it can really help you stay motivated and on track.”
First in Her Family to Pursue STEM
Opportunities for hands-on STEM learning are growing as schools like Gulf Shores add specialized programs. But the professions those classes lead to remain largely male. According to the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, women made up about 35% of the U.S. STEM workforce in 2021, and their share is much smaller in fields such as engineering, the physical sciences and computer science, even though women now earn about half of all science and engineering bachelor’s degrees.
Vo acknowledged that imbalance, but said she does not see it as a barrier. She credits her support system and her connection to the work itself.
“I think it is a bit daunting at first to break into the STEM field because it is quite male-dominated, so I think that just knowing that I am the first in my family to break into STEM, that’s a really motivating factor for me,” she said.
Her Advice to Classmates
Vo believes many of her classmates do not realize how much is available to them at Gulf Shores High.
“The thing about Gulf Shores is we have so many opportunities that most students don’t even realize. With all the AP curriculum and career pathway classes, there are competitions, you can join organizations, there are so many opportunities to find a place to belong.”
For students thinking about a path like hers, she said the key is to follow their passion and “find exactly what interests you.”
“Forging your own path and not caring what other people think because it’s something you want to do,” she said.
Looking Toward College
Vo has her sights set on the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta or another selective university. Georgia Tech is widely known for its engineering programs and offers degrees in both chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and engineering, the two fields at the top of her list.
For now, the senior year ahead means AP exams, lab reports and, she hopes, a season on the robotics competition team before college applications give way to her next step.
About Gulf Shores City Schools
Gulf Shores High School, home of the Dolphins, serves students in grades 9 through 12 and enrolled about 880 students in the 2023-24 school year. It is part of Gulf Shores City Schools, which began operating on June 1, 2019, after the city voted in 2017 to form its own district. It was the first school system to separate from Baldwin County Public Schools.
The district runs three schools: Gulf Shores Elementary, Gulf Shores Middle and Gulf Shores High. Its high school offers an array of AP classes and career pathway programs, giving students like Vo more ways to explore fields such as engineering, computer science and the sciences before graduation.