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)








Writing

Research | Essays | Poems | Criticism


Poem #1: All of the Above

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.



© RIVER AN 2025