About
River An



Peddie School 27’


As a singer, actress, writer, and visual artist, 
Musical Theatre
Vocal Performance  
- Performer

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • Lead roles: Fiona (Shrek) and Gloria Thorpe (Damn Yankees) in school production

  • Chapel and memorial soloist; core member of Peddie Singers (10th, 11th) and Treblemakers (9th) with repertoire in jazz and musical theatre.

  • Lead vocalist for Blair Day band (2024, 2025), performing before the full school community.

  • Upcoming (Feb 2026): Ensemble member in Peddie’s winter musical Mamma Mia, expanding musical theatre experience.
Peddie Student DEI 
Leadership Council 
- SDEI Leader

MAY 2025 – MAY 2027

  • Liaison between DEI office and students; collaborate with affinity groups; lead community workshops.

  • Focus: moving from awareness to respectful dialogue; amplifying underheard voices.

  • Core skill: listening and facilitating to reach compassionate solutions; carrying this work into college leadership and academics.

Visual Storytelling 
Amphion 
Literary Art Magazine 
- Artist and Editor

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • Independent study in visual art; Scholastic submissions recognized (Silver Key).

  • Amphion 2024 cover artist, layout editor; curating work and mentor contributors.

  • Plan to lead Amphion and apply visual/narrative strategies to independent work and critique in college.

Peddie Arts Citizenship Committee
– Theater Representative

 2024 – Present
  • Represent the theatre community in school-wide arts planning, advocating for student perspectives in arts programming.

  • Connect theatre with civic dialogue by framing performance as a space for empathy, identity, and social responsibility.

  • Collaborate with faculty and student leaders to promote inclusive, accessible, and community-centered arts initiatives.
Peddie Creative Writing 
Signature Program 
- Participant

SEPTEMBER 2025 – MAY 2027

  • Selected for a two-year, discussion-driven signature program focused on sustained study of literary works across historical periods and the production of original creative writing.

  • Create and revise original poetry, genre fiction, and graphic narrative through regular workshop critique with peers and faculty..

  • Junior-summer in-person program (2026); final portfolio and public capstone reading.

Law & Psychology Research on Juvenile Vulnerability 
– Researcher

JULY 2025 – NOVEMBER 2025

  • Completed original research study (N=307) examining adolescent comprehension of Miranda rights and linguistic vulnerability in the justice system under mentorship of a clinical psychologist.

  • Conducted statistical analysis on age, confidence, and familiarity effects; manuscript submitted to The Whitman Journal of Psychology and National High School Journal of Science.

  • Presented findings at NJ Student Ethics Conference (November 2025): "Why Do Miranda Rights Fail to Protect Young People?"
Columbia University High School Law Institute (HSLI)
– Student Scholar

Fall 2025 – Spring 2026

  • Selected for a competitive law program at Columbia Law School to deepen practice-based understanding of juvenile justice.

  • Participate in weekly case-based seminars on criminal procedure and constitutional law led by Columbia Law students.

  • Connect independent research on juvenile vulnerability to real-world legal decision-making through lectures and case discussions.
Hartley's Legacy at Princeton CIEL Senior Center 
– Founder & Volunteer
Spring 2025 – Present

  • Founded intergenerational music project collecting seniors' most meaningful songs and life stories through performance, conversation, and collaborative singing.

  • Shifted from performer to listener and documentarian; archiving elders' memories through interviews, illustrations, and voice recordings.

  • Developing sustained community service initiative in coordination with Peddie School's DEI programs to amplify underheard voices.
Peddie Varsity 
Girls Golf - Athlete

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • Varsity team member; MAPL team champion (2025).

  • Built resilience, patience, and team mindset; value humor and cohesion alongside technical skill.


PRESENTATIONS & PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP

November 22, 2025
  • New Jersey Student Ethics Conference (NJSEC 2025) - Presenter

  • Selected as school representative to present original research: “Why Do Miranda Rights Fail to Protect Young People?”

  • Delivered analysis on false confessions, linguistic barriers, and legal reform proposals.
Honors

  • Peddie Declamation Contest – Second Place(2026), Honorable Mention(2024, 2025)

  • Scholastic Art & Writing Awards - Silver Key (2024, Painting), Honorable Mention (2025, Painting, Mixed Media)

  • Amphion Literary & Art Magazine – Selected Cover Artist (2024)

  • Peddie Talent Show – 2nd Place (2024, Vocal Performance)

  • MAPL Golf Championship – 1st Place Team (2025)

Languages

  • Korean (mother tongue, native fluency)

  • English (second language, native fluency)






RIVER AN’s Portfolio




  As an actress
As an actress, I learn to inhabit different lives and communicate truths beyond words.

Acting makes me feel most human and most present. The vulnerability necessary to take part in performance is exactly what teaches me most about courage, honesty, and human connection.

Theater allows me to channel my empathy and creativity while exploring emotions I might otherwise suppress. It challenges my perfectionism and teaches me to prioritize my emotional presence and genuine joy on stage with both cast and audience.






As a SingerAs a singer, I am connected to both my physical and emotional intuition. 

It requires me to fully trust my voice and the work I have done to refine it. In practicing the creation of music, this art that predates spoken language as we know it, I remind myself that my voice and the passion that helps me carry it belongs uniquely to me.

Where other art forms allow me to revise or reinterpret before I place them in the public eye, even allowing some level of removal from my own identity, my singing is directly connected to myself.




  As an Visual Artist
As an artist, I work across various mediums (drawing, painting, digital).

Art, for me, is a conversation between discipline and chaos. Ironically, my art is where my most obsessive, precise self emerges. I am methodical and sometimes even rigid, but it’s that structure that gives my expression room to expand.

The creative process often begins with frustration, be it a lack of originality or a technical challenge, but I’ve learned to welcome that discomfort and work through it. 


\


  As a Writer
I choose to write, because I believe that defining art is most often a futile endeavor, or at least an endless one, but it will always tell a story regardless of its medium. 

Writing is the only way I can understand myself, and through it, I wish to further understand the world around me and express what it means to me.




© RIVER AN 2025
About
River An


Peddie School 27’


The definition of art escapes most artists today and those who came before us. I have long held the belief that art is anything created with intention, and anything that could be interpreted with intention. Rather than confining art within a neat description, I live every day trying to spread the intention that art requires. I move across disciplines (singing, acting, writing, and drawing) to celebrate both human instinct and interpretation as I embrace art. Art has taught me that to create is to listen, not only to discern between sound but also to silence, to what resists expression. This same attention guides my interest in psychology and law, where I explore human behavior in its most concentrated form in practice and how it reveals both the fragility and resilience of human beings. I believe justice, like art, requires the courage to confront contradictions and to honor what is difficult to name. Whether in performance, scholarship, or advocacy, I strive to give space to what is often overlooked. My work, whether artistic or academic, is a search for how the truth can be not only known but also felt.

Musical Theatre
Vocal Performance  
- Performer

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • Cast as Fiona in the freshman-only production of Shrek early in my first year, gaining experience leading a stage production.

  • Selected as the only sophomore with a major role—Gloria Thorpe in Damn Yankees—in a musical typically led by upperclassmen.

  • Serve as a solo vocalist for chapel services, alumni memorials, school ceremonies, and as lead vocalist for the 2024 & 2025 Blair Day band.

  • Member of Peddie Singers (10th–11th) and Treblemakers (9th), strengthening vocal technique and ensemble discipline.

  • Upcoming (Feb 2026): Ensemble member in Mamma Mia, expanding training in dance-based musical theatre.
Peddie Student DEI
Leadership Council 
- SDEI Leader

MAY 2025 – PRESENT
  • Serve as a long-term DEI Council Leader, acting as a liaison between the DEI office and students while partnering with affinity groups to foster dialogue and lead community-wide workshops.

  • Having moved across the world several times, I recognize how identity is shaped by environment, motivating my work to deepen surface-level awareness into open, respectful conversation.

  • Create culturally responsive events and facilitate spaces that elevate underrepresented voices and encourage honest sharing of lived experiences.

  • Practice active listening and impartial mediation to guide conflicts toward compassionate solutions.

  • Hope to continue DEI-focused leadership in college through student organizations, classroom collaboration, and academic work that values diverse perspectives.
Peddie Arts Citizenship Committee
– Theater Representative

 2024 – PRESENT
  • Represent the theatre community in school-wide arts planning, advocating for student perspectives and contributing to decisions that shape campus arts programming.

  • Frame theatre as a space for civic dialogue, using performance to explore empathy, identity, and social responsibility within the school community.

  • Collaborate closely with faculty and student leaders to promote inclusive, accessible, and community-centered arts initiatives that connect artistic practice with shared values.


Amphion 
Literary Art Magazine 
- Artist and Editor

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • Selected as the 2024 Cover Artist for Peddie’s 100-year-old literary/art anthology.

  • Became a layout editor, curating multimodal submissions and mentoring younger contributors.

  • Created award-winning artwork recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (Silver Key; Honorable Mentions).

  • Developed a personal practice rooted in anatomy study, color theory, digital and traditional media, and iterative experimentation.Will lead Amphion as a senior, integrating visual-narrative design with independent work in storytelling and memory.

Peddie Creative Writing
Signature Program
- Participant

SEPTEMBER 2025 – MAY 2027

  • Peddie’s Creative Writing Signature Experience Program allows selected students to dig deep into various works across literary history and utilize their research to aid them in their original work, which they polish through 2 years with their peers and their teacher.

  • Currently enrolled in the Peddie Creative Writing Signature Program, engaging in sustained study of literary works across historical periods while producing original creative pieces in poetry, genre fiction, and graphic narrative, refined through regular workshop discussion and revision.

  • Have created and submitted multiple original works to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, actively participating in a small, discussion-driven creative cohort that fosters collaborative critique, artistic risk-taking, and measurable growth in voice and craft.

  • Will participate in an in-person creative writing summer program during junior year (2026), culminating in the development of a focused portfolio in a chosen genre and a public community reading as the program’s capstone.

  • Aspiring English major and future law student, using creative writing as rigorous training in precision, rhetoric, and narrative clarity, and as a foundation for understanding language as both an artistic and persuasive tool.

Law & Psychology Research 
on Juvenile Vulnerability 
– Researcher

JULY 2025 – OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025

  • Completed a 20-page interdisciplinary research paper under the mentorship of clinical psychologist Dr. Aliza Spruch-Feiner, examining how linguistically underdeveloped or impaired juveniles face disproportionate vulnerability within the juvenile justice system.

  • Integrated psychological and legal frameworks to analyze how language limitations, trauma histories, and developmental factors interact with interrogation practices and courtroom procedures.

  • Continuing to expand the project through the collection of original survey data with Centiment to assess adolescents’ understanding of the Miranda warnings and the gap between legal rights in theory and in practice.
Columbia University High School Law Institute (HSLI)
– Student Scholar

Fall 2025 – Spring 2026

  • While conducting independent research on juvenile justice and interrogation law, sought more practice-based insight into how legal principles function beyond theory; applied to and was accepted into the High School Law Institute (HSLI), a selective program hosted by Columbia Law School.

  • Participate in weekly Saturday sessions led by current Columbia Law students, engaging with real cases, criminal procedure, and constitutional analysis through discussion-driven coursework.

  • Gain firsthand exposure to legal practice through special lectures and sessions with legal professionals, including judges, allowing me to connect my research on juvenile vulnerability to real-world legal decision-making.
Hartley's Legacy at Princeton CIEL Senior Center
– Founder & Volunteer

Spring 2025 – Present
  • Founded intergenerational music project collecting seniors' most meaningful songs and life stories through performance, conversation, and collaborative singing.

  • Shifted from performer to listener and documentarian; archiving elders' memories through interviews, illustrations, and voice recordings.

  • Developing sustained community service initiative in coordination with Peddie School's DEI programs to amplify underheard voices.
Peddie Varsity Girls Golf
- Athlete

SEPTEMBER 2023 – PRESENT

  • I am a player in Peddie’s Varsity Girls Golf team.

  • Golf has helped me become more resilient, more patient, and more team-minded throughout the hardships I’ve experienced living in a boarding school. Through golf, I can understand that my endurance are equally vital.

  • Once, when I came down with a cold and could not play in a match, my coach told me how the team was not the same without my presence, and that my sense of humor and ability to lighten the mood was just as important as my efforts to improve at the sport itself. I’ve come to see that humor, strong bonds between team members, and a sense of balance in a competitive environment just as essential as technical skill. 

  • Golf is the only sport that has stayed with me through every chapter of my life. Even if I never play competitively again, I know I’ll return to it, because it’s given me a critical experience in how to be a productive member of a team.

PRESENTATIONS & PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
  •        November 22, 2025

  • New Jersey Student Ethics Conference (NJSEC 2025) - Presenter

    Selected as school representative to present original research:
    “Why Do Miranda Rights Fail to Protect Young People?”

    Delivered analysis on false confessions, linguistic barriers, and legal reform proposals.

Languages

  • Korean (mother tongue, native fluency)

  • English (second language, native fluency)

Honors & Awards

  • Peddie 156th, 157th, 158th Declamation Contest – Second Place(2026), Honorable Mention(2024, 2025)

  • Scholastic Art & Writing Awards - Gold Key (2026, Poetry), Silver Key (2024, Painting), Honorable Mention (2026, Critical Essay 2025, Painting, Mixed Media)

  • Amphion Literary & Art Magazine – Selected Cover Artist (2024)

  • Peddie Talent Show – 2nd Place (2024, Vocal Performance)

  • MAPL Golf Championship – 1st Place Team (2025)



© RIVER AN 2025




slowgirl by Greg pierce

2026
The 158th Declamation Speaking Contest
 2nd Place

“Murder, He Says” (1943)  - Young Arts  2026  Submission



Damn Yankees,
Peddie Musical, 2025




Gloria Thorpe
As a sophomore, I was cast as Gloria Thorpe in Damn Yankees, a lead role typically given to upperclassmen in Peddie’s Winter Musical. It was a bold, fast-paced part with sharp wit and vocal firepower—and one I embraced fully. My teachers saw something in me and trusted me with that energy, and on stage, I returned it with everything I had. Gloria let me be unapologetically loud, clever, and commanding. I wasn’t just playing a character—I was inhabiting a kind of power I didn’t always show offstage. That role didn’t just grow me as a performer; it affirmed how performance can reveal dimensions of the self that others already believe in.

Peddie
157th Declamation Contest, 2025
Caryl Churchill
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire


Honoroble Mention
The Peddie Declamation Contest is one of the school’s oldest traditions, where students deliver memorized speeches from literature, history, or public life before the entire community. The event highlights clarity, emotional expression, and presence. More than a recital, it’s a celebration of the spoken word and the art of performance.

New York Film Academy, Intensive Summer Camp, 2025


2025 NYFA Intensive summer camp - Acting for Film
In Summer 2025, I completed New York Film Academy’s intensive three-week Teen Acting for Film Summer Camp in New York City, training each day at the Battery Park campus under working actors and directors. The fast-paced curriculum immersed me in scene and monologue work, voice and movement, improvisation, and on-camera audition technique, while also casting me in the 3-Week Filmmaking students’ short silent films—giving me practical set experience and strengthening my collaborative storytelling skills. The program culminated in a professionally shot and edited monologue and two-hander scene, providing me with a polished digital reel that showcases my growth in nuanced screen performance, articulation, and creative confidence.
The Prom, Peddie Musical, 2024



Ensemble Member
After performing in Peddie’s Freshman Musical early in my first year, I auditioned for the school-wide Winter Musical The Prom—a production typically led by upperclassmen—and was cast as an ensemble member. Though not a lead, the role challenged me to stay present through group choreography, harmonies, and silent acting. I learned that performance isn’t always about being seen—it’s about building the emotional current beneath the story. Ensemble work taught me to listen, support, and contribute with quiet intention.

Shrek, Peddie Freshmen Musical, 2024





FionaIn my first semester at Peddie, I was cast as Fiona in the Freshman Musical Shrek. Though I had theater experience before, this was my first time stepping into a lead role in a completely new community. At a time when I was still learning names and navigating unfamiliar hallways, I found myself building something real on stage—with people I barely knew, but would soon laugh, fail, and grow with. Playing Fiona—a character both outrageous and sincere—helped me ground myself in presence, humor, and risk. That show didn’t mark my start in theater, but it did mark the moment I began to feel at home through it.

More Video







 © RIVER AN 2025
Acting : Monologue
Slow Girl by Greg Pierce, 2012 - Young Arts 2026 Musical Theater Submission


157th Declamation Contest, Peddie, 2025
Caryl Churchill
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire

156th Declamation Contest, Peddie, 2024


Honoroble Mention
The Peddie Declamation Contest is one of the school’s oldest traditions, where students deliver memorized speeches from literature, history, or public life before the entire community. The event highlights clarity, emotional expression, and presence. More than a recital, it’s a celebration of the spoken word and the art of performance.


© RIVER AN 2025
Acting : Musical
Damn Yankees,
Peddie Musical, 2025


Gloria Thorpe
As a sophomore, I was cast as Gloria Thorpe in Damn Yankees, a lead role typically given to upperclassmen in Peddie’s Winter Musical. It was a bold, fast-paced part with sharp wit and vocal firepower—and one I embraced fully. My teachers saw something in me and trusted me with that energy, and on stage, I returned it with everything I had. Gloria let me be unapologetically loud, clever, and commanding. I wasn’t just playing a character—I was inhabiting a kind of power I didn’t always show offstage. That role didn’t just grow me as a performer; it affirmed how performance can reveal dimensions of the self that others already believe in.

The Prom, Peddie Musical, 2024



Ensemble MemberAfter performing in Peddie’s Freshman Musical early in my first year, I auditioned for the school-wide Winter Musical The Prom—a production typically led by upperclassmen—and was cast as an ensemble member. Though not a lead, the role challenged me to stay present through group choreography, harmonies, and silent acting. I learned that performance isn’t always about being seen—it’s about building the emotional current beneath the story. Ensemble work taught me to listen, support, and contribute with quiet intention.
Shrek, Peddie Freshmen Musical, 2024


FionaIn my first semester at Peddie, I was cast as Fiona in the Freshman Musical Shrek. Though I had theater experience before, this was my first time stepping into a lead role in a completely new community. At a time when I was still learning names and navigating unfamiliar hallways, I found myself building something real on stage—with people I barely knew, but would soon laugh, fail, and grow with. Playing Fiona—a character both outrageous and sincere—helped me ground myself in presence, humor, and risk. That show didn’t mark my start in theater, but it did mark the moment I began to feel at home through it.

Singing

School Performance | Outside of School

Please view in full screen and
turn on the volume!
Blair Day Chapel, 2025 - main singer




As a Singer
On stage, I aim for clarity, not perfection. I want each sound to mean something—to carry both discipline and feeling. Singing allows me to reveal what can’t always be said, with honesty and precision.
Dessert Theater, 2026


Blair Day Chapel, 2024 - main singer



Lead Singer
Blair Day is one of Peddie’s oldest and most spirited traditions, celebrating the long-standing rivalry between Peddie School and Blair Academy through a day of athletics, music, and community pride. As part of the Blair Day Chapel, a school-wide event that opens the festivities with music and reflection, I was selected as the lead vocalist for the student band representing Peddie. Performing in front of the entire school community on such a significant day was both humbling and empowering. The performance brought together my vocal training, stage experience, and sense of school spirit into one of the most memorable moments of my time at Peddie.





Every year, Peddie produces a music video to welcome new students and share the spirit of the school. In 2024, I was selected as one of the lead vocalists for our cover of “Defying Gravity.”

Working with fellow student musicians and a professional production team, I helped bring the story to life through song. The final video became part of Peddie’s official admissions campaign—an honor that let me represent my school with both voice and heart.
Peddie Concert, 2024

Peddie Vaspers, Dec. 2025 - Peddie Singers



Peddie Winter Concert, 2025 - Peddie Singers



 Peddie Concert, 2023-2025 - Peddie Singers

Since entering Peddie as a freshman, I have been selected to represent the school as a vocalist through Treblemakers and Peddie Singers—two of Peddie’s most selective choral ensembles. These groups have allowed me to take part in the school’s major musical events, including the Fall, Winter, and Spring Concerts held in Ding Music Hall, as well as chapel performances and admissions events. As a consistent performer in these spaces, I’ve come to understand music not only as personal expression, but as a way of building shared experience. Each concert deepened my understanding of ensemble work, discipline, and how collective voices can carry meaning beyond what a solo ever could.

More Video




© RIVER AN 2025

Singing

School Performance | Outside of School


“Before It’s Over” (2012)  - Young Arts  2026  Submission



NY Jazz Academy - summer intensive @Smash Studio, 2025

Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Duke Ellington)



Centerpiece (Harry Edison & Jon Hendricks)


© RIVER AN 2025

Singing

School Performance | Outside of School

Please view in full screen and
turn on the volume!
Blair Day Chapel, 2025 - main singer




As a Singer
On stage, I aim for clarity, not perfection. I want each sound to mean something—to carry both discipline and feeling. Singing allows me to reveal what can’t always be said, with honesty and precision.
Dessert Theater, 2026


Blair Day Chapel, 2024 - main singer



Lead Singer
Blair Day is one of Peddie’s oldest and most spirited traditions, celebrating the long-standing rivalry between Peddie School and Blair Academy through a day of athletics, music, and community pride. As part of the Blair Day Chapel, a school-wide event that opens the festivities with music and reflection, I was selected as the lead vocalist for the student band representing Peddie. Performing in front of the entire school community on such a significant day was both humbling and empowering. The performance brought together my vocal training, stage experience, and sense of school spirit into one of the most memorable moments of my time at Peddie.





Every year, Peddie produces a music video to welcome new students and share the spirit of the school. In 2024, I was selected as one of the lead vocalists for our cover of “Defying Gravity.”

Working with fellow student musicians and a professional production team, I helped bring the story to life through song. The final video became part of Peddie’s official admissions campaign—an honor that let me represent my school with both voice and heart.
Peddie Concert, 2024

Peddie Vaspers, Dec. 2025 - Peddie Singers



Peddie Winter Concert, 2025 - Peddie Singers



 Peddie Concert, 2023-2025 - Peddie Singers

Since entering Peddie as a freshman, I have been selected to represent the school as a vocalist through Treblemakers and Peddie Singers—two of Peddie’s most selective choral ensembles. These groups have allowed me to take part in the school’s major musical events, including the Fall, Winter, and Spring Concerts held in Ding Music Hall, as well as chapel performances and admissions events. As a consistent performer in these spaces, I’ve come to understand music not only as personal expression, but as a way of building shared experience. Each concert deepened my understanding of ensemble work, discipline, and how collective voices can carry meaning beyond what a solo ever could.

More Video




© RIVER AN 2025

Singing

School Performance | Outside of School

Please view in full screen and
turn on the volume!
Blair Day Chapel, 2025 - main singer




As a Singer
On stage, I aim for clarity, not perfection. I want each sound to mean something—to carry both discipline and feeling. Singing allows me to reveal what can’t always be said, with honesty and precision.
Dessert Theater, 2026


Blair Day Chapel, 2024 - main singer



Lead Singer
Blair Day is one of Peddie’s oldest and most spirited traditions, celebrating the long-standing rivalry between Peddie School and Blair Academy through a day of athletics, music, and community pride. As part of the Blair Day Chapel, a school-wide event that opens the festivities with music and reflection, I was selected as the lead vocalist for the student band representing Peddie. Performing in front of the entire school community on such a significant day was both humbling and empowering. The performance brought together my vocal training, stage experience, and sense of school spirit into one of the most memorable moments of my time at Peddie.





Every year, Peddie produces a music video to welcome new students and share the spirit of the school. In 2024, I was selected as one of the lead vocalists for our cover of “Defying Gravity.”

Working with fellow student musicians and a professional production team, I helped bring the story to life through song. The final video became part of Peddie’s official admissions campaign—an honor that let me represent my school with both voice and heart.
Peddie Concert, 2024

Peddie Vaspers, Dec. 2025 - Peddie Singers



Peddie Winter Concert, 2025 - Peddie Singers



 Peddie Concert, 2023-2025 - Peddie Singers

Since entering Peddie as a freshman, I have been selected to represent the school as a vocalist through Treblemakers and Peddie Singers—two of Peddie’s most selective choral ensembles. These groups have allowed me to take part in the school’s major musical events, including the Fall, Winter, and Spring Concerts held in Ding Music Hall, as well as chapel performances and admissions events. As a consistent performer in these spaces, I’ve come to understand music not only as personal expression, but as a way of building shared experience. Each concert deepened my understanding of ensemble work, discipline, and how collective voices can carry meaning beyond what a solo ever could.

More Video




© RIVER AN 2025

Community Work

Hartley’s Legacy at Ciel of Princeton Senior Center

2025 Spring - Present
 

I initially began volunteering at the Princeton Senior Center by singing for seniors during regular visits. Over time, I noticed that certain songs consistently opened deeper conversations—prompting memories, stories, and emotional reflections tied to specific moments in their lives.

As a member of Hartley’s Legacy, I began to approach this work more intentionally. Rather than focusing on performance alone, I started collecting the songs that held the greatest meaning for each individual and using music as a starting point for dialogue. Through shared listening, conversation, and singing, these sessions became collaborative exchanges grounded in memory, storytelling, and mutual learning.

Building on this experience, I am currently developing this work into a sustained intergenerational community service project. As a DEI leader at Peddie School, I am preparing to formally connect this initiative with the school’s DEI efforts, shaping it into a long-term service project centered on inclusion, identity, and intergenerational connection.


  • Began participating through vocal performances at the Princeton Senior Center and expanded the work as a member of Hartley’s Legacy, focusing on music as a tool for connection rather than presentation.
  • Collects seniors’ most meaningful songs and life stories through structured conversations, shared listening, and collaborative singing.
  • Currently developing this work into a sustained intergenerational community service project in coordination with Peddie School’s DEI initiatives.








© RIVER AN 2025

Acting : Film
2025 New York Film Academy, Acting for Film

2025 NYFA Intensive summer camp 
- Acting for Film

In Summer 2025, I completed New York Film Academy’s intensive three-week Teen Acting for Film Summer Camp in New York City, training each day at the Battery Park campus under working actors and directors. The fast-paced curriculum immersed me in scene and monologue work, voice and movement, improvisation, and on-camera audition technique, while also casting me in the 3-Week Filmmaking students’ short silent films—giving me practical set experience and strengthening my collaborative storytelling skills. The program culminated in a professionally shot and edited monologue and two-hander scene, providing me with a polished digital reel that showcases my growth in nuanced screen performance, articulation, and creative confidence.



© RIVER AN 2025
Writing

Poetry | Fiction | Essays | Research

All of the Above
2026 Scholastic
 Art & Writing Awards
Gold Key

When your mother AND your father taught you how to use your knuckles
  1. to cook rice,
  2. to count the amount of days in a month,
  3. to fracture someone’s bones,


you had yet to learn neither their Eastern magic nor how
  1. rice absorbed water one-to-one regardless of the average adult-sized first phalanx.
  2. calendars could be Julian or Gregorian, very un-Eastern, and that it worked even if February is a little special.
  3. you should never punch with your thumb tucked in.


You were supposed to be a big girl, but you couldn’t help but cry, because
  1. all three times the rice came out wrong, so you tried to destroy the evidence, but the wrinkled flesh of your index finger pointed right back at you, 
  2. you had to count your index finger twice to account for both July and August. There were too many months, too many months until you could mother yourself,
  3. your hand throbbed, long before Philosophy 101 would teach you how to put a name to your pain, and your pride must have stung more than your palm.


Maybe your tears blurred your vision, or your memory fails you, but you think their eyes
  1. went to you before the crime scene beneath your mother’s feet, and neither of you knew where you went wrong, but she pardoned you anyway, humoring your self-incrimination. She never stopped pardoning herself, which is to say she never stopped turning herself in, and you wonder who she surrendered to without a mother of her own.
  2. crinkled as your mother peeled your fists open and smiled a little smugly like she understood time as an equation instead of a device of fate, like she folded laundry and caught up to her second-favorite soap drama before she changed your life every day and week and month and knuckle at a time.
  3. softened when you ran to your father’s side, and he held you very close like brass knuckles tight against your fingers, like a ribcage heavy on your heart,


but you rub your hands together on a brittle winter day and remember
  1. the warmth of your mother’s palm.
  2. the press of her thumb counting the months for you.
  3. the weight of your father’s hand pulling you toward him.

Things That Come
비가 온다.
In Korean, rain comes.
Rain is a visitor,
knocking at your door.

In English, it rains.
Rain is an event
that happens.
I am the one watching,
standing apart
from what falls.

잠이 온다.
In Korean, sleep comes.
Sleep arrives like a guest
I've been waiting for.
I never fall.
I am found.

In English, I fall asleep.
I am the one falling,
gravity pulling me down
into unconsciousness.

슬픔이, 기쁨이, 불안이 온다.
Sadness, joy, anxiety come.
In Korean, feelings accompany me.
They visit and leave
and I am the receptacle
they pass through.

In English, I possess my feelings.
I have anxiety.
I have joy.
I have grief.

화가 난다.
In Korean, anger happens to me.
I am not the source.
I am the receptacle
where anger occurs.

In English, I am angry.
I am the subject.
Anger is a thing I contain.

마음이 생기다.
In Korean, my heart-mind arises.
생각이 나다.
A thought appears.

I don't possess them.
They come to me
like rain,
like sleep,
like spring after a long winter.

In English, I make decisions.
I am in control.
I choose, I want, I will.

My therapist asks:
What are you feeling?

In English, I say:
I am anxious.
In Korean, I would say:
불안이 나를 찾아 온다.

Anxiety comes
and finds me,
not when I summon it,
but when my body remembers
what my mind forgot.
It will leave
when it's ready.

And somewhere between 온다 and "comes,"
between possessing and being possessed,
I exist:
untranslatable,
bilingual,
made and unmade
by the languages
making me happen.

Director's Cut
In some photo I am a hundred days old.
Stuck between stacked rice cakes and a gold ring,
there I am. 백일잔치, they call it, my first debut,
already performing for the camera
        though no one asked if I wanted the part.
I’m sure the camera flashed, but in that white
blindness, I should have stayed
in the delivery room
               or my country
or my mother's hold.

But I will spend every debut,
every staged smile,
chasing the sun
which is to say the camera
which is to say the audience
to look my way just once.

But what does an audience want from a body
that flies too close to it?
I wish I were Icarus
because his dogma is more American than I
will ever be
but he wished too, before he fell,
and pipe dreamers pay more than they dream
               but maybe I can keep running
and just maybe, tripping over steaming asphalt
I'll get closer to the sun
inside, burning my gut.

Pebbles
When I was young, sometimes,
I would pick up pretty pebbles at the beach.
I don't remember who I was with,
but the feeling remains here, still,
making my hands ache.

The sunlight lay low across the horizon,
and my small fern-like hands,
wet with seawater,
were cold and hot at once.

The pebbles were small and round,
no edges, so they didn't hurt
even when I squeezed them tight.

That's why, I think, I held that stone
for quite some time, turning it over
and over in my palm.

My hand remembers.
As if my heart had nested in my palm.
It remembers what it held,
what temperatures it passed through.

Maybe those pebbles still exist
Somewhere,
slowly worn smooth by currents and sunlight.
I send my regards
to all those places I left behind,
to all the pockets that once held my hands,
to the small, round, warm pebbles:
Hello? How are you… or so.

© RIVER AN 2025