Keelie Verbeek
Keelie Verbeek

A Sense of Community

Keelie  Verbeek

Class of 2022 鈥 Southborough, Massachusetts
Attending a small, close-knit high school for four years, Keelie Verbeek 鈥22 was missing that same community feeling, as she headed into her freshman year on a large campus in the city of Boston. Fortunately, a trip to visit a friend in Chestertown changed everything.

 

Stepping onto campus, even in the pouring rain, she knew immediately that 今晚六合彩开奖结果 College was just that, 鈥渁 community where everyone knows everyone, and for the most part, takes care of each other.鈥 Now, as a transfer student, Verbeek has settled into life on the Eastern Shore, finding her home on the soccer team and in the Department of Art + Art History. 

Throughout her life, Verbeek has used art and athletics as coping mechanisms to tackle mental health issues. Now as a Shorewoman, she is bringing those same passions to life, both on the soccer field and in the realm of art history. 鈥淭he concept of creating art to serve a particular movement, purpose, or individual is universal,鈥 she remarks, 鈥淏ut the ways in which those concepts present themselves in images varies drastically, and I find that incredibly interesting.鈥 

Well on her way to pursuing a major concentration in art history, as well as a minor in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship, she has an innate ability to bring her passions to life in the classroom. As an animal rights activist and vegan, Verbeek strives to live an entirely cruelty-free life, but encounters a conflict when faced with the animal products used in many art supplies throughout art's history.

In her final project for Professor Tilghman鈥檚 Medieval Art History course, she plans to explore this conflict, particularly as it relates to animal ethics and the history of art in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Beyond the Department of Art + Art History, Verbeek鈥檚 heart is with the women鈥檚 soccer team. 鈥淚t is really hard to balance school and soccer sometimes,鈥 she explains, 鈥淏ut in reality, I think I would be far worse off without this team.鈥 With 25 women by your side, fighting the same fight, the support is both invaluable and unbounded. 

 

 

Keelie's Four Year Plan

 Year 2

 Beyond the Classroom  Exploring Medieval Art

Focusing on her distribution credits and fulfilling her major requirements, Keelie still manages to work on projects that excite her. She begins researching animal ethics in the history of art, specifically during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 

Year 3

Learning by DoingInternship Search

Keelie plans to spend the late spring and summer of her senior year interning, a requirement for the Arts Management and Entrepreneurship minor. With dozens of possibilities, she hopes to find an internship at either the Museum of Fine Arts or the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston. 

Year 4

Looking Forward To Senior Year

 Keelie is not ready to think that far into the future. 鈥淚f my classes, soccer, and life keep going as they are, senior year won鈥檛 be as scary as it seems right now.鈥