Today, Karolina Kwaśniak knows that her goal is to keep on working professionally as an actress, both on stage and on set. But that wasn’t always the case. At just twelve years old, Karolina, who grew up in Poland, started singing opera, training it for nearly a decade. Yet as much as she enjoyed the experience, something didn’t feel quite right about it.

“Even though I loved it, I could feel that I was not able to fully express myself through opera,” she said.

Acting was always a regular part of the curriculum at Karolina’s music school in Warsaw, and she harbored a suspicion that it might be what she wanted to do the most. After attending a summer acting workshop at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Karolina’s suspicions were confirmed.

“With acting, I felt like I could finally be myself,” she said. “I think it was just always meant to be.”

After completing her BA in Music Production at the Grazyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Poland, Karolina began exploring graduate programs in the United States, determined to go back to America to study acting.

“I chose three schools in New York,” she said. “Then I found out that because of the pandemic, one of the schools wasn’t taking applications that year, another one turned out to be too expensive, and the last one ended up not being a good fit for me.” With her plans seemingly derailed, Karolina considered deferring her graduate education for another year or so. But, after further consideration, she decided to do more research into acting programs in the U.S. And that’s what led her to the CalArts School of Theater MFA in Acting program.

“I chose CalArts because the Institute’s values correlate with my own artistic values. I wanted to be a part of a community that allows and encourages collaboration and an experimental approach. I wanted to create opportunities to work with artists outside of my field of expertise and learn from them. I also just had a gut feeling about it.”

During her time at the Institute, Karolina has acted in several productions, including in the role of Nina in Anton Chekhov’s “The Sea Gull,” which was directed by Zoe Wang. She also played the part of The Angel in “El Misterio,” which was adapted and directed by Luna Izpisua de Kissel.”

Additionally, Karolina has worked with the School of Dance and performed in an MFA dance thesis show called “Night of the Falling Stars.”

“This summer Karolina worked professionally in Poland playing the lead role of Marta in a 30-minute short film “Untangling” directed by Hania Pikulska.”

Karolina was able to hone her art at Calarts, in part, because of the support that she received through the Shubert Scholars Program. Funded by the Shubert Foundation, the Shubert Scholars Program is designed specifically to support graduate students in the School of Theater. “The scholarship has helped me believe in myself even more, and it has given me confidence and made me feel seen and appreciated,” Karolina said.

Karolina says that she has grown tremendously as a performer thanks to her experience at CalArts. “I feel the strength of my technical skills supporting my storytelling more than ever before,” she said. “I am excited for what is to come and am looking forward to another year here.”

In the end, Karolina seems to have found CalArts to be the perfect fit for what she has been searching for all along, and she’s not looking back.

“I am growing as an artist and as a human being. Through this experience, I’ve learned that one may often find satisfaction, success, and happiness in a completely different way than one could imagine. It’s wise and beneficial to stay open, to not be afraid of change, and to always take risks.”