Difference between revisions of "Vikas Arun"

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Update: Vikas Arun gained notoriety this summer when he made it to the Vegas portion of the auditions for the famed show, So You Think You Can Dance. He beat out all of the other tap dancers auditioning and a majority of the rest of the dancers in order to make it to the very end of Vegas week on the show's twelfth season. His facebook page has gained a large following with displays of encouragement and support from fans, including many Columbians.[https://www.facebook.com/VikasArunDance]
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Vikas Arun is a member of the Columbia Engineering undergraduate Class of 2017 who majored in Operations Research and minored in Computer Science. He is known for his vast array of dance accomplishments, his leadership of the URC (Undergradaute Recruitment Committee), and the numerous academic awards he won, including a fellowship to complete his MS at Columbia for free.  
  
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From the [[Columbia Daily Spectator]]: Vikas Arun, SEAS ’17, is currently performing with the Catastrophe Dance Company and will be touring five cities next year with the Celebrity Dance Company. He recently sat down with Spectator to discuss how he balances his workload with his passion for tap.
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He gained much notoriety during the summer of 2015 when he made it to the final 25 dancers for the famed show, So You Think You Can Dance. He beat out all of the other male tap dancers auditioning and a majority of the rest of the dancers in order to make it to the very end of Vegas week on the show's twelfth season. His facebook page has gained a large following with displays of encouragement and support from fans, including many Columbians.[https://www.facebook.com/VikasArunDance]
  
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From Columbia University's "First Look at SEAS First-Years":[http://engineering.columbia.edu/first-look-seas-first-years]
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Apart from So You Think You Can Dance, he is a member of CATastrophe Dance Company (winner of the prestigious ACE Capezio Choreography Award, and a guest artist with MUSE dance company based out of LA. He has been offered a contract to perform with STOMP, toured the country with Celebrity Dance Conventions in 2014 and 2015 teaching tap dance, and been featured in the upcoming film "Breaking Brooklyn". He is also a member of Chloe Arnold's Apartment 33, a famous tap dance company started by Columbia alumna Chloe Arnold, whose works has been featured by Beyoncé among others.  
  
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Hometown: Seattle, WA
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Vikas has won three Kings Crown Leadership awards during his time at Columbia. In 2016 he won the Bernard Jaffe Prize for the Encouragement of Inventiveness in Engineering and the Kings Crown Award for Innovation & Enhancement in recognition of his instrumental work in expanding and re designing the engineering tour for prospective students. In 2017 he won the Columbia Spirit award along with co chairs Drew Feldman and Julia Davis Porada for their work leading the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee. He was also named the most persuasive tour guide on campus.
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Dream Job: No idea yet but when that dream job comes along, I'll know it’s right!
 
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Go-to App: Snapchat—It’s an easy way to keep in touch with my friends across the country.
 
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Favorite TV Show: Shark Tank and So You Think You Can Dance
 
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Potential Major: Operations Research and a minor in Economics—I have always been someone who finds an absurd amount of joy in efficiency.
 
  
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Vikas, 19, began tap dancing at the age of 9 and has since maintained his equal passions for dance and science. He spent half of last summer teaching dance and choreographing competitive dance pieces in the Seattle area, and the second half living in Los Angeles where he danced for Muse Dance Company. The School’s New York City location was a big draw for Vikas, who hopes to one day perform on a major stage.  
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In the spring of 2017, he was featured on the Columbia Engineering home page [http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/senior-spotlight/vikas-arun] as well as in the Commencement Edition of the Columbia Record [https://commencement.columbia.edu/engineer-tap-dances-his-way-tackling-big-data]. He was also awarded the Robert Gartland Fellowship, given to at most one undergraduate a year. The fellowship provides a tuition waiver for a student to pursue their MS in Operations Research at Columbia [http://bulletin.engineering.columbia.edu/endowed-fellowships].
  
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He continues to train at Broadway Dance Center in midtown and recently joined a dance company set to have its first performance in November. While some may consider tap dancing and engineering polar opposites, Vikas offers a different viewpoint. “Tap dancing is all about musical precision. The best tap dancers are amazing because they can ‘speak’ clearly with their tap shoes. In relationship to the music, they know when to make sounds and when to sit quiet,” explains Vikas. “My engineering background helps me with overlapping disparate rhythm patterns. Studies have pointed to the fact that math and music use similar parts of the brain, and I guess I’m another example supporting that theory!”
 
  
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Also a bit of an entrepreneur (he started a company in the seventh grade that converted customers’ old VHS tapes to DVDs), Vikas likes that the School provides an exciting entrepreneurial environment. “Through programs like Columbia Business Lab, Columbia has shown that it is dedicated to helping its entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground,” says Vikas, “and a school that fosters that type of environment is definitely one I want to be a part of.”[http://engineering.columbia.edu/first-look-seas-first-years]
 
  
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Vikas has also been profiled in a wonderful HerCampus article. [http://www.hercampus.com/school/columbia/vikas-arun-seas-17]
 
  
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Tags: [[Vikas Arun]] | [[Famous Columbians]] [[URC]]
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[[Category:Class of 2017]]
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[[Category:Artists]]
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[[Category:SEAS students|Adelson]]
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Tags: [[Vikas Arun]] | [[URC]] | [[Class of 2017]] | [[SEAS 2017]] | [[SEAS Students]]

Latest revision as of 14:22, 27 July 2017

Vikas Arun is a member of the Columbia Engineering undergraduate Class of 2017 who majored in Operations Research and minored in Computer Science. He is known for his vast array of dance accomplishments, his leadership of the URC (Undergradaute Recruitment Committee), and the numerous academic awards he won, including a fellowship to complete his MS at Columbia for free.

He gained much notoriety during the summer of 2015 when he made it to the final 25 dancers for the famed show, So You Think You Can Dance. He beat out all of the other male tap dancers auditioning and a majority of the rest of the dancers in order to make it to the very end of Vegas week on the show's twelfth season. His facebook page has gained a large following with displays of encouragement and support from fans, including many Columbians.[1]

Apart from So You Think You Can Dance, he is a member of CATastrophe Dance Company (winner of the prestigious ACE Capezio Choreography Award, and a guest artist with MUSE dance company based out of LA. He has been offered a contract to perform with STOMP, toured the country with Celebrity Dance Conventions in 2014 and 2015 teaching tap dance, and been featured in the upcoming film "Breaking Brooklyn". He is also a member of Chloe Arnold's Apartment 33, a famous tap dance company started by Columbia alumna Chloe Arnold, whose works has been featured by Beyoncé among others.

Vikas has won three Kings Crown Leadership awards during his time at Columbia. In 2016 he won the Bernard Jaffe Prize for the Encouragement of Inventiveness in Engineering and the Kings Crown Award for Innovation & Enhancement in recognition of his instrumental work in expanding and re designing the engineering tour for prospective students. In 2017 he won the Columbia Spirit award along with co chairs Drew Feldman and Julia Davis Porada for their work leading the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee. He was also named the most persuasive tour guide on campus.

In the spring of 2017, he was featured on the Columbia Engineering home page [2] as well as in the Commencement Edition of the Columbia Record [3]. He was also awarded the Robert Gartland Fellowship, given to at most one undergraduate a year. The fellowship provides a tuition waiver for a student to pursue their MS in Operations Research at Columbia [4].

Tags: Vikas Arun | URC | Class of 2017 | SEAS 2017 | SEAS Students

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