Students for the Future: Senior Gena Koinzan

 Picture sent in by Gena Koinzan

This is the first in a series of articles shining the light on extraordinary CFHS students and what they plan to do in the future. Often stressful things in the world around us can make us feel hopeless, but CFHS students continue to push forward for the future. Senior Gena Koinzan is the first person to be highlighted by this series. Here’s more about her and her plans.

Koinzan always had a love for theater. However, she never saw it as a career path until recently as she often felt societal pressures to get a well paying STEM job. Now she hopes to go into theater education to direct plays and teach younger people how to act.

“I’ve always loved theater, especially performing. However, I didn’t plan to turn it into a career until I had the opportunity to direct a musical theater group for large group speech.” Koinzan said. “Even though I had no clue what I was doing at first, I had so much fun working with my group and watching them grow as people and performers. Getting to have this experience made me realize that I want to spend the rest of my life igniting a passion for theater within teens.”

Koinzan plans to go to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and get a bachelor’s degree in theater. During her time there she also plans to get experience from internships. After she gets her bachelor’s, she then plans to get a master’s in a more specific field of theater, and with all these credentials in place she said she hopes she can get a good job at a community theater. Through this process of discovering her dream career, Koinzan discovered that her job shouldn’t concern how much money she makes but how much she enjoys her job, and that she shouldn’t be shamed for what she wants to do in life.

“I suggest that people follow what they love, even if it may be hard to achieve. No job is worth the money if it isn’t something you enjoy,” Koizan said.

In 10 years Koizan said, “I would love to be living in a cute, little house outside of a bigger city, commuting to the small community theater I work at. I’d love to drink my coffee in my office, filled with posters from shows I’ve directed. I want to have spent the past 10 years working with groups of teens who are thrilled to be in their first show, to help spark that passion for theater.”