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Alicia Pak

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Finalist

1x

Winner

General information

Religion
Prefer Not To Answer

Hobbies & Interests

  • Painting and Studio Art
  • Dance
  • Crocheting
  • Graphic Design
  • Film

Reading

  • Art
  • Design
  • Humor
  • Novels

I read books multiple times a week.

Bio

Hello! My name is Alicia Pak, and I am a 24-year-old student aspiring to become a physical therapist. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance with a minor in Digital Media. I originally pursued a professional dance career, in which I had received incredible training and opportunities. But through that journey, I realized the importance of long-term financial stability while still wanting to stay connected to movement and the human body. Having worked closely with physical therapists throughout my life as a dancer, I developed a strong appreciation for the role they play in injury prevention, rehabilitation, and overall wellness. Physical therapy quickly became a natural path for me, one that allows me to combine my passion for movement with my desire to help others heal and thrive. I am currently volunteering at San Francisco Jewish Campus working alongside the rehabilitation team as well as instructing dance to low-income elementary students all over the Bay Area. I am also the President of a club at SFSU, where I host volunteering events for aspiring physical therapists. I have a desire to rehabilitate individuals, especially dance movement artists and geriatric patients, to back to full health, while igniting my curiosity for the anatomy of the human body. I believe that everyone deserves to have healthy bodies! In my free time, I part time at a cat cafe serving coffee-related drinks and providing a safe, entertaining environment for kitties looking for new homes. I also enjoy long distance running, crocheting, and creating design flyers for my friends' events.

Education

San Francisco State University

Bachelor's degree program

2025 – 2026

Majors:
  • Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

California Institute of the Arts

Bachelor's degree program

2019 – 2023

Majors:
  • Dance, General
Minors:
  • Digital Arts

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Master's degree program
Graduate schools of interest:
University of California-San Francisco, New York University, Columbia University in the City of New York, Touro College, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Southern California
Majors of interest:
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

Career

  • Rehabilitation Aide

    Health, Wellness, and Fitness · Muscle and Joint Physical Therapy

    Jan 2023 – Jan 2024

  • Dance Instructor

    Performing Arts · Yvonne's Dance Academy

    Jan 2023 – Jan 2024

  • Dance Instructor

    Performing Arts · South Bay Dance Center

    Jan 2018 – Jan 2019

  • Dance Instructor

    Performing Arts · Creative Learning and Performing Arts

    Jan 2024 – Present

  • Front Desk

    Box Office · CalArts Box Office

    Jan 2019 – Jan 2020

  • Front Desk

    Libraries · CalArts Library

    Jan 2019 – Jan 2020

  • Guest Artist

    Arts · ArcTangent Dance Company

    Jan 2019 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Health, Wellness, and Fitness
Dream career goals:
Physical Therapist
Has nursing license:
No
Bold Creativity Scholarship
As a former dance and digital media arts student, creativity is one of those key factors that our colleagues compete to have the "most" of. We are always creating work, sprouting new ideas, and daydreaming in our studios. Studying at California Institute of the Arts full-time has been one of the most monumental decisions in my art-making journey. To be immersed in an environment that is flourishing with art work, studios, creative ideas, art forms, and most importantly, a variety of art peers, gave me a life time surge of inspiration to create work that sparks imagination. For producing and choreographing a dance piece, a couple of qualities and techniques that I lean toward to that help aid me in a creative process, includes repetition, syncopation, rhythm, gaze, improvisation tasks, lighting, costume, dynamic, etc. All of these qualities would be defined under the umbrella of intention and concept, depending on the piece I want to execute. For digital media arts, I center my work around societal concepts and social change. I enjoy using figurative language, metaphors, symbolism, and illustrations to define the piece. Most of my art-making practices are fueled by observing other people. I can be inspired by other artists in different time periods, or different types of artists including musicians, filmmakers, animators, writers, movies, books, tv shows, and more. Often times, random objects spark ideas. In my most recent piece, I was able to take inspiration from the functionality of a vacuum cleaner and translate that into a political work about ego. I have never considered applying creativity in my life as a step by step tutorial. It was more of an action that came naturally through simple everyday occurrences. Or perhaps it's the way my brain prefers things, in an aesthetic point of view.
Terry Crews "Creative Courage" Scholarship
The original work I created, "To Be Ashamed or Unashamed of My Identity," is a dance film that reveals my internal dialogue, through the navigation of society's expectations along with my experiences being a second generation Korean American. While this film is a current work in progress, I feel that it encapsulates a large part of my artistic practice and describes my intentions as an aspiring multi-disciplinary artist. Every part of the film is significant and plays an important role in storytelling. The gradual increase of movement aligns with the heightened tension in music, the tension in the music aligns with my inner dialogue, my dialogue aligns with my real life experiences, and so forth. My ultimate dream is to utilize art as a medium to promote a sort of action such as social change, empathy, or sensation. Through this, I’d love to be a part of a professional dance company that emphasizes these ordeals and/or free-lancing and producing my own personal work through choreography. This is my dream because dance has been a dependable outlet for me to express my suppressed emotions. It has helped me through generational trauma, expectations from a toxic competitive community, and more. I am highly introverted and terrible at verbal communication, but dance/movement/art has given me a voice to speak every single emotion and thought. I believe that the beauty of art is sharing it with others. Art is a universal language and to be a part of it is something that I am proud to represent and wish to continue pursuing professionally. I believe that it is capable of healing, mending, and consoling. I hope to convey these emotions through creativity as my way of serving for others and also hope to deliver performances that leave viewers in inspiration.
Anne DiSerafino Memorial Arts Scholarship
A tea kettle releases steam after it whistles from high pressure. A bubble from chewing gum pops after expanding to it's thinnest layer. A gas leak explodes after being ignited with an open flame. A human bursts with energy once exposed to creativity and freedom... or at least I did. Growing up, I had a difficult time handling personal issues that resulted in bottled up emotions and fear. I faced trama being a first generation asian student and first-born daughter. The expectations in the community I grew up in soared through the roof. My first interaction with art started when I was in high school when I started training for dance professionally. By then I had I learned about rhythm, technique, dance etiquette, styles and immediately fell in love with the amount of freedom one can feel through movement. Dance allows for the rejuvenation of the body and subconscious mind. By getting the opportunity to find a studio space to separate myself from the pressurized and toxic community at home, I found explosive creative freedom and happiness. Ever since then, dance has become my safe space where I can truly be in tune with my mind and body, as well as collaborate with other fellow artists who inspire and push me to continue striving. Currently, I am studying at California Institute of the Arts where I am working towards a degree in Bachelor in Fine Arts in Dance and a Digital Media Arts minor. Here, I have been exposed to so many ideas, collaborations, artists, and opportunities surrounding the art world. I have discovered other ways I can continue to be artistic with dance, including fusions with film, digital media, design, fashion, and animation. This scholarship would help continue this journey and exploration with art as it would help to assist with college tuition, and side projects that I dream of accomplishing as a growing artist.
Elevate Minorities in the Arts Scholarship
Winner
Artivist. Art + Activist. The way artists promote social change is primarily through emotion, empathy, and sensation; qualities that many people lack in this society. As a dancer studying to be exposed to the performing arts industry, I have constantly been looking for ways I can translate my movement into visceral emotion and empathy. By utilizing multiple mediums to expand my research such as dance, film, photography and text, I yearn to engage the public eye to remorse over social movements that requires their utmost attention to promote social change. Promoting social change in art inspires me to push myself creatively and politically. It inspires me to join the two repelling forces of destruction and peace where us humans, the subject of destruction, must meet and interact with the calming yet sensitive qualities of art in which we can all fall into humanely agreeance of social matters. It is the same visceral emotion that I personally feel about certain social issues that I want viewers to feel while viewing my art. I believe art was created to heal the wounded, open closed eyes, and delve viewers into an alternate reality in which imagination and creativity reigns superiority over all mediums of interaction and thought. If I were to win this scholarship, I would utilize the money to fund a dance film. This dance film will showcase the detrimental effects of social media and how social media manipulates the viewer's interests through the traction of data. It will also reveal how social media has shaped many minds to become politically aware, yet damaging and sensitive; slowly deteriorating the idea of 'common sense' as false news, gaslighting, and lies fill our brains through each post, story, and comment. I aim to present this through proper filming, backdrops, costuming, lighting, and editing.
Alicia Pak Student Profile | Bold.org