Graduating senior Kailey Ho’s love of music began at an early age. After beginning band in fourth grade, Ho said, “I was hooked.” When she began attending St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, she immediately joined band, and later went on to join the choir and become president of the school’s music honor society.
“At school, music is my thing. I’m always in the music department hallway and always helping out the teachers somehow,” Ho said.
During her senior year, Ho filled her open second elective with choir. Now, she alternates between band and choir. “It’s nice to be back in that space, back in that room every day,” she said.
While her love of music guided her studies, Ho looks to the skies for a future career as a pilot. “I don’t do sports. Flying is my sport,” she joked.
Since October, Ho has been working toward a pilot’s license, hopefully before she heads to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the fall. There, she plans to major in aeronautical science, with a dream to become a commercial airline pilot at age 23.
While setting large goals can be intimidating, Ho said, “It gives me a lot of motivation to do better in high school so I can do better in college, and then work really hard in college. Four years can really be a huge amount of time or a small amount of time, depending on how you look at it.”
Ho said her experiences at Paul VI, such as volunteering as head altar server, have helped to form her for college. “I’ve definitely been exposed to good habits here, and hopefully those are things that will follow me,” she said. “The transition between high school and college is not going to be easy, but I feel prepared for the world.”
While talking to a teacher recently, Ho said she realized that she “got a lot of good stuff from this school that I probably wouldn’t (have gotten) if I went to a public school. I know that I could have gone in a completely different direction, but I’ve developed a lot of good morals and good standings, and I don’t think I would have been able to do it without this school.”
Through the love and support of her friends, teachers, parents and outside mentors, Ho said, “I’m really happy where I am at this point in my life, and I would not be here if it hadn’t been for PVI.”
