My name is Jared Karse. I’m a student, a musician, and a restaurant manager. The purpose of this brief biography is to present a summation of my academic, professional, and intellectual life up to the present time. To anyone interested, this will provide a comprehensive look into my life and how my experience and knowledge can be of service to an employer, community, institution, or individual.

I am born and raised in Vancouver, the product of a hard-working middle-class family. I grew up with two brothers and a sister, all of whom have varying pursuits and interests. We’re a very close-knit family, being attached at the hip from childhood and into our current young adulthood. My family has always been the most valuable thing in my life. Family is what motivates me. It’s what has provided me with constant inspiration in my academic and personal endeavours. To understand me is to understand this simple and important detail. I have been influenced by countless musicians and teachers in my life, but none come close to what my parents and siblings have provided me for my entire life.

I grew up playing sports, mainly lacrosse and ice hockey. I was fortunate to have parents that whole-heartedly supported me in these extracurricular activities. Although this dominated most of my free time in my youth, my interests soon switched dramatically. I began to take a serious interest in academics around twelve years of age. Literature, art, and music were particular areas that I fell in love with and continue to study to this day. I’m a saxophonist and I participated in school jazz and concert bands from middle school until high school graduation, receiving multiple scholarships to study music in my post-secondary education. I enrolled in Capilano University’s Jazz program straight out of high school with the intention of receiving my undergraduate degree in music. However, I became uncertain of my true aspirations and what role I wanted music to have in my life. I had somewhat of an academic crisis. I came to the realization that I wanted to do something different academically and professionally. I watched music become a source of anxiety for me rather than the source of escapism and pleasure it once was. My path had become obscured and I could no longer envision my future with any certainty or confidence.

Music remains a big part of my life. I’ve discovered that I most enjoy creating music instead of pursuing it academically. I released an album of original material in the fall of 2017 and I continue to work on musical projects in a creative medium instead of an academic one. Whilst discovering the place I wanted music to occupy in my life, I sought to discover what I wanted to pursue academically. I had become extremely interested in fine art and took a semester off in February of 2015 to take a solo trip to England where I found a new passion. I attempted to visit as many art galleries and museums as possible, falling in love with countless art pieces and the institutions that housed them. There was one artist who particularly stunned me named Marlene Dumas. I returned multiple times to her retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern. I was deeply inspired by the emotion and uniquely abstract way she paints the human figure. I realized that visual art was having the same emotional and captivating impact on me that music did. With a burning desire to learn more about art, I returned home and enrolled in Capilano’s Art History program.

Returning to university proved difficult for me at first. My personal life and academics became a relationship that I struggled to balance. I began working at Browns Socialhouse and started to learn a new skill set. Dealing with people in the customer service realm on a day to day basis and working my way up in the restaurant industry forced me to develop faster as an individual. As I matured and refocused, I was able to take on more classes and graduated with my Associate’s Degree in Art History in April 2018. The summer of 2018 then became a decision-making time for me.

In the fall of 2018, I enrolled in the Liberal Studies program at Capilano University to finish my undergraduate degree. The decision was based on several factors. I’ve taken a managerial role at Browns. I’ve found that I’ve become highly interested in managing a business and a team of people. However, I am still heavily interested in arts and academics. I want the rest of my undergraduate studies to be based on what I find particularly interesting and the Liberal Studies program is allowing me to do exactly that.

With not much time left before I finish my undergraduate, I’ve begun to consider a graduate program. I’m interested in working in an art gallery one day in some capacity, but the restaurant industry excites me quite a bit. The Master’s of Management program at UBC is very enticing to me as I want to gain a set of skills in my graduate program that will allow me to work even better with people and understand the intricacies of businesses. Nothing is currently set in stone. I’m working full time as a manager and finishing my undergraduate education. It’s an ambitious workload but one that I’m excited about. I strongly believe that staying busy can be the key to happiness as long as one is busy with things they enjoy and maintains their personal health as well as their relationships with the people they love. I want to be of service to a company or institution that I truly believe in one day. A business that has a goal of making the world better in some way. I believe the academic path I’ve chosen is one that will allow me to gain knowledge in the right areas and to be a positive influence in society.