As a high school student at Baltimore School for the Arts, Lianna Kissinger-Virizlay ’10 studied theater for four years. When she began looking at colleges, she knew she wanted to explore new interests while staying involved in a vibrant arts community.

Princeton matched her criteria, and to be sure, she took a dance class when she visited the campus.

“It was perfect. There was live music. It was experimental, and moving, and made a connection between music and dance, which fit so perfectly with what I felt art should be,” Kissinger-Virizlay says. “The way the [theater and dance] program works, it’s very accessible, and I can foster my love of the arts and be very involved without dedicating all of my time to it.”

These days, she performs with Theatre Intime and the dance program’s guest choreographer program, and she auditions for productions staged by various student groups.

Primarily, though, Kissinger-Virizlay is focusing on developing her talent as a writer as she plans to pursue a major in English with a certificate in American studies. Kissinger-Virizlay chooses her courses with one goal foremost in her mind.

“I’m in the unique position of knowing what I want to write about for my senior thesis … a biography of my father,” she says. Her father, Mihaly Virizlay, immigrated to the United States during the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and became the principal cellist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 40 years. “He’s been a big force in my life,” she says.

Through classes in English, American studies, journalism and creative writing, she is studying American literature, writing about Baltimore in the 1970s and learning about biographical writing. Additionally, she has been a contributing writer for Princeton’s student newspaper, “The Daily Princetonian.”
 
As she feels herself growing as a writer, Kissinger-Virizlay can confirm that she made the right choice.

“I knew the [arts] community Princeton had set up was nurturing, exciting and really committed. Also, I knew about the thesis, and that Princeton is number one in the nation and has great professors,” she says. “I knew that coming in, but it surprises me every day.”