UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If Gigi Lin, a Penn State College of Arts and Architecture alumna, could give one piece of advice for college students today, she said, it would be to keep your options open and do not limit yourself because you never know what opportunities may find you.
Lin is working toward a master’s degree in vocal performance at NYU, with a focus on classical voice and opera. She is set to perform as Frasquita in “Carmen” with the Taconic Opera in November.
Her success in the city can be credited in part, Lin said, to the Integrative Arts program, or INART, at Penn State, where she said she learned to trust her tenacious spirit and interdisciplinary talents.
“If I were to ask freshman year me if I were to be here right now, I could not have even imagined it,” Lin said.
Lin graduated in the spring of 2022 with an INART degree. This major allows students to incorporate multiple areas of study into their undergraduate journeys, and Lin combined music and fine arts. She started with an art focus but said she realized she couldn’t leave her passion for music behind.
“I always felt like the ideal was to do both in some capacity,” she said.
From piano lessons beginning when she was 7 years old, private voice lessons starting at age 13 and art classes throughout high school, Lin loved to explore her creative side.
“There was sculpture involved, there was painting and drawing,” Lin said. “Nothing was really off-limits. I just let myself be gravitated toward whatever I was interested in in that moment.”
The INART program allowed Lin to design a degree that catered to all her artistic interests.
While at Penn State, Lin joined various clubs and organizations that allowed her to continue her creative journey and practice her artistry while making friends and giving back to the community. She sang for the Penn State University Choir, Oriana Singers, Penn State Opera Theatre and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Lin said Music Service Club was also an important part of her undergraduate experience. She was a member of the club for three years, during which time she volunteered to perform at assisted living facilities, elementary schools and community events.
As a THON chair, she helped with fundraising and planning the group’s main-stage THON performance in 2020.
“I often rearranged pieces or wrote parts so that we would have a part for strings that didn’t originally have it,” Lin said. “We made kind of unconventional student bands. Whatever instruments were being played by students in the club, I wanted to include them in some way.”
During the virtual THON performance in 2021, Lin coordinated 11 individual recordings that members of the group sent to her and then edited them for the livestream.
Being involved in as much as she was, it was only natural that some scheduling conflicts arose. Lin said she was lucky to have understanding and accommodating professors who worked with her whenever she needed.
“Basically, they said, ‘Listen, as long as you’re able to present that same quality of work and spend that time on your own to make up for studio time you missed in class, that’s okay,’” she said of her professors.
Water media, ideas as shapes, drawing, multiple levels of figure drawing, acting for singers, music theory, music history and various foundational classes were just some of the classes Lin chose to take as part of her individualized major. She also had the opportunity to take several graduate-level music classes as an undergraduate student.
“The opportunity presented itself, and I was able to go for it,” Lin said.
Some undergraduates might be hard-pressed to find time for all the activities and an advanced class schedule while maintaining a personal and social life, but not Lin, she said.
“I don’t really close any doors for myself. I feel like if I ever get interested in something, I want to pursue it,” Lin said. “If I wanted to do something, I was going to give it time. I was going to allow myself to have the time to pursue whatever it was and follow through with it.”
Lin’s “go get ‘em” attitude is present in everything she does. Whether it is music, art, videography, photography, editing or even social media management, marketing, graphic design and communications, Lin gives it her all and loves to blend her skills whenever possible, she said.
Lin added that her creative side helps her as a marketing and communications manager for RiverArts, a co-op organization dedicated to bringing community members together through art.
“No matter what I’m doing, whether it’s visual arts or it’s performing, my end goal is to be connecting with an audience,” Lin said.
The community and network she has built have been an important part of her success since graduating, Lin said. Many of her connections are Penn State alumni like herself who have found themselves living in New York City.
“You never understand it when you’re a student, but once you move out and experience the world on your own, it’s crazy that there’s always going to be alumni there,” she said.
For now, when she is not working and pursuing the arts, Lin said she enjoys hanging out with friends, trying new restaurants, reading and exploring the city.
“In the moment,” Lin said, “this is exactly where I need to be.”