Jaclyn Alcazar, a senior at Holy Family High School College Preparatory, Glendale, Calif., learned to play piano in preschool. Her preschool teacher told her parents that Jaclyn plunked with joy. “I had an easier time it seems,” she says.
She took piano lessons through 10 years old and then she started playing piano and singing. “It’s a fun way to multi-task.” Jaclyn then took a month of vocal lessons when she was 11 years old.
In high school, she is in choral class and serves as the lead cantor for worship in her Catholic high school. Jaclyn is the Associated Student Body president. She helps organize clubs and serves as a bridge between the students and the faculty. According to the school, “The students who are club or class officers take on the responsibility of leadership, organization, and planning for the various school events offered throughout the year.”
During her junior year, she auditioned for Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray, but the company that handles licensing told the school director several professional groups were performing the show. “We had to change the musical and I took on the new lead role in Once On This Island. We created the show in two months to be performed at the historic Alex Theatre. We build our own sets, everything. Dancing and acting are a new love.”
Within her community of Glendale, Calif., Jaclyn also serves as a student ex-officio commissioner on the Commission on the Status of Women. The purpose of the commission is to advance social justice and equity and ensure equality of rights and opportunities for all women and girls in Glendale by building new and strengthening existing bridges between the City’s diverse groups, organizations, agencies and individuals; by increasing the level of knowledge in the community regarding women’s issues and the status of women in our community; by encouraging and promoting participation and by increasing visibility of women in all spheres of life in Glendale (including home, work, school, and government).
Academically, Jaclyn is into Advanced Placement classes including calculus, literature and government. “I have always taken honors classes.” Her future interests could be in three diverse fields: criminal justice, engineering or public relations. In whatever field, Jaclyn plans to pursue the highest degree she can.
“I mastered playing piano and singing. I started playing even more by ear. It is my stress reliever,” she says. “I go to the piano and start singing and playing.” She’s also part of a small band, the Lily Bang Experience. At a school talent show, they offered up a jazz performance of the Police’s Roxanne. “The ability to perform has really built my confidence,” she says.
For the Creative Outlook contest, she performed a cover of Bruno Mars’ Count on Me. “I am huge Bruno Mars fan. I also wanted to submit the piece because at a religious retreat I showed his video and got the girls to find their common ground. The girls think of me with the song. I also sang it during a contest sponsored by a local radio station.”
