Proposals to build data centers across the country have sparked community opposition because of the large amount of energy and water they require, possibly leading to higher utility costs for those consumers, and the noise that they generate.
This school year, Ana Pin led her fellow members of the BEDA (Building, Engineering, Design and Architecture) Club at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington in designing a possible net-zero data center in the Dallas area. With the help of professional mentors, the young women won first place in an ACE (Architecture, Construction and Engineering) regional design competition.
“Our project aimed to completely offset any carbon emission produced during the data center’s operation,” said Pin, a member of the class of 2026 at Georgetown Visitation.
The students’ design utilized a new technology, liquid immersion cooling, which she said produces minimal noise and vibration, and the design called for using a solar farm located next to the center to power the project.
The Visitation students working as a team on the project divided up into smaller groups to consider factors including the site selection, type of construction and sustainability (environmentally conscious building practices), interior design and exterior layout, and cost analysis.
In recent school years, Pin and the other Visitation students in that BEDA club also designed a possible multi-use Olympic Stadium at the site of the former RFK Stadium in Washington, and a potential train center for the Nashville area.
Praising their teamwork, Pin said, “It was definitely very inspiring to see all these people working together… That spirit of collaboration and everyone working together to achieve a common goal has been a hallmark of my Visitation experience, and it’s something I want to continue in college with other people.”
Ana Pin, an 18-year-old Arlington resident, is the daughter of Cristina Torres and Ulises Pin, and she has a younger brother, Diego, who will be a rising eighth grader at nearby Holy Trinity School in Georgetown, which she attended before coming to Visitation. The family members are parishioners at Holy Trinity Church.
This fall, Ana Pin – who received a scholarship from the ACE Mentorship Program – will be attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she plans to major in chemical and biomolecular engineering. At Visitation, her favorite classes included honors and Advanced Placement chemistry. “Both of those classes were very hands-on in terms of labs,” she said.
For her career, she is interested in working in biotechnology, perhaps working in a research lab testing pharmaceuticals, or in sustainable resource development.
Ana Pin was born in Washington, D.C., but both her parents are from Mexico City, and they moved to the United States for graduate school and work. The Visitation senior said she is proud of her family’s Mexican heritage. Since childhood, she has been fluent in Spanish, and when she was in the second through the fourth grade, her family lived in Mexico City, which enabled her to improve her written and verbal skills in Spanish.
Back home in the Washington area, Ana Pin has attended a weekly Escuela Argentina Program, an educational program for Spanish-speaking youth who study Latin American literature, history, politics and culture. She has met some of her closest friends through the program, as those youth with Latin American roots share their cultural connections. At Visitation, she has also been active with the Spanish Club that spotlights Hispanic culture.
Her fluency in speaking Spanish served her well when she volunteered at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, and she was able to communicate with patients and family members in Spanish, offering them comfort during her candy striping duties.
“It was really gratifying to use my skills to make other people more comfortable” at anxious times for them, she said, adding, “I definitely learned how important clear communication is.”
She also witnessed how small things, like giving a sticker sheet to a child can bring them a bit of relief. At Georgetown Visitation, she co-founded the Cubs for Pediatrics Club that raised funds for the hospital’s outreach to children and families.
Ana Pin served as a Kairos retreat leader at Visitation, joining students in discussions about faith. The school sponsored by the Visitation Sisters emphasizes Salesian Little Virtues inspired by the order’s co-founder, St. Francis de Sales. Her favorite Salesian Little Virtue is gratitude, and each day she reflects on the things that she is grateful for. “It has been helpful for me to keep me more grounded throughout the day,” she said.
Witnessing those virtues including patience, perseverance, hospitality, kindness and gratitude being lived out at her school by friends, classmates and teachers has deepened her faith, she said.
“Seeing all these people model these Salesian virtues has helped me see God in others, seeing friends who deal with challenges with grace or treat others kindly or embrace their success with humility has shown me God shines through all these people and has inspired me to model these actions as well,” the Visitation senior said.
As her graduation approached, Ana Pin said, “I feel prepared to go after what’s next, to be a woman of faith, vision and purpose.”
Her years at Visitation, she said, have solidified the importance of having a community, “ a backbone of friends and teachers, a support network I can rely on in any circumstance.”
Looking forward to college and life after that, Ana Pin said she will be “harkening back to my Visitation experience, to find that same sense of community somewhere else.”
