A local teenager is celebrating an accomplishment matched by less than a quarter of one percent of his peers.
16-year-old Frank Quan Pham learned to play the steel pan drum at Wisconsin Lutheran High School less than two years ago.
"It's a very unique program and as always, I like to try new things," he says.
He has tried and excelled at many new things. Along with playing in several bands, this high school junior is in theater, book club, and he tried wrestling. He even joined the 'Future Business Leaders of America', a new club this school year. Frank told our Susan Kim that he, along with several other students, qualified for nationals, adding to his special year.
Frank recently learned that he had earned a perfect 36 on his ACT college entrance exam. Frank was surprised as well, saying "there are kids that are really, really smart and really accomplished. I am really surprised that I am the only one with a 36."
The director of international students, Tamara Leyrer, is amazed that Frank earned a perfect ACT, especially as an international student. Wisconsin Lutheran has 70 international students this year, teenagers from 19 countries who traveled to live and learn at the private school.
Leyrer first met Frank in 2020, when he was just 14. She was in Vietnam to meet potential students, on the second floor of a coffee shop in Hanoi. Leyrer remembers that Frank came with about 20 students "and he was unique, in that he was extremely curious about everything. His English was exceptional, which was largely because of his self-study."
But the road to getting Frank to Wisconsin was a bumpy one, between COVID lockdowns and a visa application the U.S. Embassy that was denied the first time.
"Frank and his family had to decide whether they wanted to reapply, which is costly and nerve-wracking. They went through with it," Leyrer explains.
And the second attempt was successful. Frank started at Wisconsin Lutheran in the fall of 2021, an opportunity that Frank does not take for granted. He says he wanted to study in the U.S. because "Americans have achieved many accomplishments."
He does miss home sometimes, but stays in touch with video calls home to his 10-year-old sister and parents in Vietnam, while staying focused on his goals back here.
"No matter what I end up doing, [I] not only want to give back, but also give it forward to the people who need it most," Frank says.
Until then, expect to see Frank continue to soak in everything he can.
"We had to actually tell him to cut back. He was doing so much; he couldn't show up to some of the events because he was double-booking himself," Leyrer says.
Frank plans to attend a university here in the U.S. and focus on engineering or data science. And of course, he wants to minor in something as well, perhaps journalism, finance or education. He is actually the 6th student in six years to achieve a perfect ACT at Wisconsin Lutheran.
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