Trenton Arts at Princeton is excited to welcome Aleena Brown, Kasey Shao, Lucy Shea, Sasha Villefranche, Dominic Dominguez, and Oriana Nelson as the 2024/25 Trenton Arts fellows.
Each fellow will serve as the student leader for one of the four Saturday Morning Arts groups: Trenton Youth Dancers, Orchestra, Singers, and Theater. They will also work together to design the annual Arts Switcheroo Day in the spring.
Aleena Brown ’25 will serve as the student leader for Trenton Youth Dancers (TYD), working alongside director Rachel Schwartz and faculty fellow Rebecca Stenn.
Brown is a senior from Jamaica, majoring in medical anthropology and pursuing a minor in theater. On campus, she has served as the artistic director of DoroBucci Dance Company and a member of the Black Arts Company. Brown is passionate about the arts and their ability to build community and conversation across cultures. When not on stage, you may find her buried in a book or her latest digital painting. She is very excited to be working closer with TYD this year!
Kasey Shao ‘25 will serve as the student leader for Trenton Youth Orchestra, working alongside TYO director Lou Chen and faculty fellow Anna Lim. Her fellowship is supported by the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation.
Shao is from Cincinnati, OH, majoring in music with certificates in engineering biology and piano performance. She was introduced to music and the arts at age six when she began playing the piano. She is passionate about arts accessibility and education, along with teaching piano, and is super excited to bring this passion to TYO. If not hanging out in Woolworth or Effron, Shao can be found in Rocky with her zees as a peer academic advisor, helping other students as an academic life and learning consultant, or planning events with her club, Friends of Médecins Sans Frontières at Princeton. Aside from music, Shao loves making mini 3D models, exploring new restaurants, and geeking out about art. She is looking forward to a year of creativity and art with TYO!
Lucy Shea ’27 and Sasha Villefranche ’26 will serve as the co-student leaders for Trenton Youth Singers (TYS), working alongside director Solon Snider Sway and faculty fellow Rochelle Ellis.
Shea is a sophomore from Springfield, PA and a prospective English major with minors in theater and teacher preparation. She is a member of Theatre Intime and Shere Khan acapella, and this is her second year with TYS. She has been singing since elementary school and plays the guitar, violin, and bass guitar.
Villefranche is a junior from Atlanta, GA studying neuroscience with minors in gender and sexuality studies and global health. On campus, she sings in the Princeton Glee Club, plays violin with Sinfonia, and occasionally does theater.
Dominic Dominguez ’25 and Oriana Nelson ’25 will serve as the co-student leaders for Trenton Youth Theater (TYT), working alongside director Faith Iloka and faculty fellows Jane Cox, Shariffa Ali, and Tess James.
Dominguez is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from Bloomfield, NJ who spent most of his life not thinking about theater. However, after his first time acting in a production with Theatre Intime, he was hooked! He is now a senior pursuing a minor in theater, writing and directing his own show. He is super excited to get even more involved in the arts this year, and share his enthusiasm with TYT! You can also find Dominic working as a barista at Coffee Club, longboarding, or playing tennis with his friends.
Nelson is a fourth-year Spanish concentrator on the creative arts track from Piscataway, NJ. Her passion for the performing arts led her to pursue minors in theater and musical theater as well. At nine, she received her first role as Nala from The Lion King. This experience catapulted her into the acting realm as she fell in love with the intricacies of portraying another person’s story. While in college, Nelson acted in a wide range of theatrical productions from a musical to a choreopoem. Her favorite role was from a senior thesis about black love, which allowed her to indulge in the power of monologues and improvisation. This led her to explore identity-based theater. Consequently, she became the president of the Black Theater Collective on campus and aims to write a thesis centered on the stories of Caribbean Afro-Latinos to shed light on voices that are often silenced. Besides acting, Nelson loves to sing, dance, and travel. For this TYT cohort, she aspires to create a safe space that prioritizes mental health and explores different sectors of theater and creative expression.