Tell us about your international journey: where have you lived? Where is home for you?
I was born and raised in Hafnarfjörður Iceland. After graduating from upper secondary school in my hometown, I decided to pursue higher education in film, writing, and theater in New York. I found Sarah Lawrence and graduated in 2021 with a B.A. I'm currently in the Creative Writing M.F.A. program. Every summer, I go back to Iceland for work.
What made you choose to attend school in the U.S? What kind of challenges and opportunities did that present?
There's a lot of opportunities in film and theater in the U.S. There are limited opportunities for quality education in these fields back in Iceland—although, that is changing. I also wanted to attend college in the U.S. because I felt like I needed a drastic change at the time. I wanted to travel somewhere far away where I could explore my various interests and see where that would take me.
What kinds of extracurriculars have you participated in?
I was a member of the now defunct Sarah Lawrence Lampoon/Feral Christine, which was both a comedy group and a theater component. We performed sketch and improv comedy on campus and occasionally at college comedy festivals/competitions around NY. I was also a part of another comedy group called Call Westlands, which was resurrected by Ann Nelson '21 and Eva Nemiroff '22. The three of us now perform comedy together in NYC as Tiny Idea. I performed stand up at the SLAC open mics, first in the Black Squirrel—when it was still open—and then in the Barb. I also performed stand up in Downstage's series of comedy shows, Clownstage, Owen Carry's '21 stand up show in A*Space, among other shows. I've been a part of a bunch of student films as a crew member, writer, director, actor, editor, or whatever was needed on the day. I made a lot of short films of my own with people I met in film classes.
What is the SLC community like?
Students at Sarah Lawrence are very different from everyone I knew growing up (that's probably the case for most students at the college). The student body is mostly smart, weird, creative people that are highly motivated and have strong opinions.
What advice do you have for international students applying to SLC?
Befriend some Americans, not just other international students. I know the Americans look scary, but they'll invite you to Thanksgiving dinners. The serving sizes are insane.
Similarly, what is something that people may not know about your home country? Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. I haven't met a single person that knows this fact. Nobody has ever come up to me and said those words. Zero people have done that. Also, elves are real. One of them is my friend. No, you can't meet them.
