At first glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell that Amara Valerio ‘24 is an avid singer. In fact, during her junior year, she auditioned at American Idol where she received a “yes” from all three judges.
Her passion for singing is just one of a few focal points during her undergraduate years, some of which include law and the criminal justice system. “[The Law & Society and Inequality Studies minors] seemed very applicable to what I was interested in since I want to go to law school,” Valerio noted. As a pre law student, Valerio is involved in Kappa Alpha Pi—a pre law fraternity—as VP of Philanthropy.
“I’m [also] an artist so I knew that even if I wasn’t performing as much, or performing professionally, I knew that I wanted it to be part of my academics, so that’s why I decided to major in PMA with a focus on theatre [and music],” she added. As a singer, she serves as Music Director of acapella group Nothing but Treble.
She hopes to share her passion for the arts with other local communities, as well. As a 2021 Nexus Scholar, she worked with Prof. Bruce Levitt, Performing and Media Arts, who co-founded a prison theatre group in Auburn Correctional Facility about an hour away from Ithaca. During her summer research, she assisted him on studying the rehabilitative effects of the arts on incarcerated individuals, which included conducting narrative and intake interviews.
“I got to meet a lot of great people and learn about a lot of important stories that aren’t really told that often,” she said. “It also has a little bit of an intersection with my interest in the law because all of the work that the men in this theatre group were producing were self written and people would want to publish things but the legal rights—and intellectual property rights—didn’t really exist or were really vague, so that was also an area that I also got to explore during my research”
Valerio is continuing her research with Prof. Levitt during her final year at Cornell by creating a centralized, universal document for incarcerated individuals in the U.S. who are interested in the arts.
This past summer, however, she explored diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the corporate field through an HR internship with CapitalOne, where she will be returning to after graduation. “AMST offers really great classes that teach students how to think creatively, analytical skills, writing, how to be a good writer, how to be a persuasive writer, all things that I intend on using for my job when I return next July, as well as when I attend law school [sic],” Valerio said.
She finds American Studies to be a comprehensive major that has immersed her in different disciplines such as American government, politics, dance, history, and more, something that other majors weren’t able to provide. “I actually came into Cornell as a Government major but I noticed that I was really enjoying the breadth of classes I was taking in the American Studies Department.”
“My concentration [in AMST] is in arts and incarceration. Not a lot of people can get to develop their own path of study within their broader major, so I think that people like me who have a ton of interests and want to explore, it’s the perfect major for that.”
