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 a 20-page interdisciplinary research paper under the mentorship of a clinical psychologist on juvenile linguistic vulnerability in the justice system.

  • Analyzed how language limitations, trauma, and development affect interrogation practices and legal outcomes.

  • Expanding the project through original survey research with Centiment on adolescents’ understanding of Miranda warnings.
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.
Princeton CIEL Senior Center
Intergenerational Musical Volunteer

MARCH 2025 – PRESENT

  • Bi-monthly performances and visits; music as a bridge for memory and conversation.

  • Shifted from performing to listening; moments of healing informed my archival project of elders’ stories.

Independent Project
- Founder/Artist/Interviewer

JUNE 2025 – PRESENT

  • Interview, illustration, writing, and voice recordings to archive elders’ memories and perspectives.

  • Purpose: give voice to underheard stories; long-term aim aligned with advocacy for representation.

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.
Languages

  • Korean (mother tongue, native fluency)

  • English (second language, native fluency)








Research & Documentary


About Youth,Language, and The Law.

“The Right To Understand” (2025 - ongoing) 




About My Work

Every year, thousands of adolescents waive their Miranda rights without fully understanding what they mean. My work examines why this gap exists—and why it matters.

I study the hidden language barrier between law and adolescence: the gap between confident assertion and actual comprehension.

Through nationwide research (N = 307), I identified a troubling pattern: adolescents who report high confidence in their legal understanding do not necessarily demonstrate accurate comprehension. In many cases, confidence and understanding diverge.

This disconnect carries serious consequences:
• Over half of adolescents demonstrate incomplete understanding of Miranda rights
• Younger adolescents show significantly lower comprehension than older peers
• Protective rights—such as the right to remain silent—are among the least understood
• Self-reported understanding, often relied upon in legal contexts, is an unreliable indicator of actual comprehension

When a young teenager tells a detective, “Yes, I understand,” that confidence alone cannot be assumed to reflect meaningful understanding.

Alongside this research, my documentary project traces how language, fear, and power have shaped juvenile interrogations from Miranda v. Arizona to the present, examining real cases in which misunderstanding and linguistic vulnerability contributed to false confessions and wrongful convictions.
PROJECT STATUS
   Data Collection & Analysis: Completed
   Publication Status: Manuscript in preparation
   (Whitman Journal of Psychology (2026))
 
SAMPLE SIZE
   Final Sample: N = 307 (Nationwide)
   Ages 13-18, Socioeconomically Diverse
   Professional Panel Recruitment (Centiment)

METHODOLOGY
   Professional panel recruitment (Centiment)
   IRB-compliant procedures consistent with COPPA regulations
   Six-component Miranda rights comprehension assessment
   Self-reported familiarity and confidence measures
   Inferential statistical analysis (age, confidence, comprehension)
 

Key Findings

Across all measures, the findings reveal a consistent and concerning pattern in adolescents’ understanding of Miranda rights. A majority of youth report little to no familiarity with the Miranda warning, yet most simultaneously express confidence in their understanding of legal rights. This mismatch between perceived knowledge and actual familiarity points to a significant metacognitive gap. Item-level analysis further shows that the rights designed to offer the greatest protection against self-incrimination—such as the right to remain silent and the right to a free lawyer—are among the least understood by adolescents, while rights emphasizing evidentiary consequences are more widely recognized. Together, these results suggest that adolescents may enter custodial interrogations with misplaced confidence and insufficient comprehension, raising serious concerns about the validity of self-reported understanding in juvenile justice contexts.

I examine how language, development, and confidence shape adolescents’ understanding of legal rights—and how misunderstandings can place youth at risk within the justice system.

Figure 1. Youth Familiarity with Miranda Rights (N = 307)



More than half of surveyed adolescents reported being not familiar at all with the Miranda warning, while only a small minority described themselves as very familiar. This indicates that many youth enter legal encounters without a basic understanding of their constitutional rights.

Figure 2. Youth Confidence in Understanding Legal Rights (N = 307)

Despite low overall familiarity with Miranda rights, most adolescents reported at least moderate confidence in their understanding. This contrast highlights a disconnect between perceived knowledge and actual legal familiarity, raising concerns about relying on self-reported understanding in legal settings.

Figure 3. Differential Accessibility of Miranda Rights Components (N = 307)



Item-level analysis reveals that rights designed to protect against self-incrimination—such as the right to remain silent and the right to a free lawyer—are among the least understood by adolescents, while rights emphasizing evidentiary consequences are more widely understood. This pattern suggests that the most protective rights are also the least accessible to youth.

Documentary —

The Right to Understand


To bring these issues into clearer view, I began an ongoing documentary that traces how language, age, fear, and misunderstanding influence juvenile interrogations from Miranda v. Arizona to today.




NJSEC Participation

On November 22, 2025, I participated in the New Jersey Student Equity Conference at St. Peter’s Prep Academy, joining student-led conversations about identity, equity, language, and youth voice. These discussions helped me connect my research to the lived experiences of young people in schools.
My direction
Across my work, I’m exploring justice not only as a legal idea but as a linguistic and emotional experience. I hope to imagine systems where young people can genuinely understand their rights—and be understood in return.

© RIVER AN 2025