Gao has grown up with her mom, dad, brother and sister her whole life. Gao has a twin brother and says they are complete opposites. She looks up to her parents very much because they both grew up in China and came over to the U.S and are both very hard working individuals. Gao says her dad is the one who started to get her involved in wanting to learn about computer science. “I was always worried about getting a job when I was a child and computer science and coding was something I loved.” -Gao said. Gao loves coding and says it makes her happy and feel good about herself. Gao’s sister is someone she looks up to very much and loves a lot. Ting Gao is Ann’s older sister. Ting attends West High School as well and will graduate in 2019. “Ann used to pester me to log into the computer this summer so that she could go on Khan Academy to learn code” – Ting said. Khan Academy is the main source were Gao learns all her coding and computer science. Ting said “Khan Academy is where Ann learns so much about computer science and coding”.
Computer science and coding isn’t the only thing Gao likes to do in her free time, Gao also was a swimmer in junior high school. She decided that is was not something that she wanted to bring to West High because she wanted to focus on coding and computer science. She did freestyle swimming and also the breaststroke. Gao loves learning more and more everyday, she thinks that schools isn’t something that she thinks is helpful for her learning and wishes she could just focus on the things she wants to do in the future like her coding and computer science. Gao also loves reading and teaching other about coding and computer science and wishes to have a job in that field in her future.