Schantelle Alonzo is one of 10 members of the APTP Class of 2021 who started college this fall. This amazing class are now bringing their gifts to DePaul, Georgetown, Harold Washington, Pomona, School of Visual Arts-NYC, Stanford, UIC and Wright College. Here’s a reflection from Schantelle on her first months as an art student in the Big Apple.
Schantelle in the drawing lab at School of Visual Arts-New York, where she is a first-year BFA candidate studying traditional animation.
I am currently attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan to learn traditional animation. Everything is very new and exciting here and I couldn’t be more elated to be in a space where the art scene is so lively. I found animation to be a beautiful marriage of my love of theater and art and found no better place to be surrounded by both aspects than here in New York City. This is a school I’ve been dreaming of since I started the college research process in 7th grade. Within the last month alone I’ve never found myself more inspired and excited to create.
Storytelling is such a vital aspect of animation, and I am so incredibly grateful to APTP for teaching me the skills I needed to be a storyteller who is able to listen, adapt, and grow through the stories I take in. I would love to take my adoration of theater, art, and storytelling to become a story artist at an animation studio.
Schantelle performs in APTP's Ofrenda (2018), for which she also created illustrations and projected artwork.
One of the most exciting and memorable experiences I have had in college so far is a screening my school hosted of Midnight Gospel, a Netflix original animated series that explores heavier themes of life and death and meditations. We had Q&A panels between each episode with alumni who actually animated the show. The show was absolutely incredible (I cried a lot, a lot). Two of my teachers were part of that alumni panel, which further solidified that I am being taught by people who actively play roles in the animation industry today.
I’ve never been surrounded by so many people who have the same goals I do; it’s so wild and exciting to have people know as much about the art and entertainment topics I love as I do and have similar career plans like being a storyboarder, or art director, or even to one day run their own animation studio.
It’s truly thrilling to make it this far, especially as a first-generation Filipina American. I couldn’t be any more grateful to my cultural, academic, and theatrical backgrounds for building the foundations I needed to get where I am today. I’ve only been here for a month yet it feels so comfortable to me already to embrace this place as an art-making home. Every second here excites me and I can’t wait to see how my work and I develop over these next 4 years!
"I am so incredibly grateful to APTP for teaching me the skills I needed to be a storyteller who is able to listen, adapt, and grow through the stories I take in. I would love to take my adoration of theater, art, and storytelling to become a story artist at an animation studio."
APTP Class of 2021