Keily - My Courageous, Creative Student!!!

Keily - My Courageous, Creative Student!!!

Keily was in my Intro. to Art class about 2 years ago. She sat between students who socialized too much and didn’t care about the class or their futures. In fact, Keily told me later that at that time she had no motivation for school. She failed a couple of classes that semester and had no interest in school.

However, the last part of the semester, a change occurred. She suddenly became charged like a battery and she would not stop working on her projects regardless of the socializing and distractions  around her. She would stay late working on her projects and take them home to complete them to the best of her ability. She asked tons of questions and when I gave the guidelines for a project, she always chose something challenging, something where she would have to investigate how to bring her idea into existence.

When the year was coming to an end, I wrote a letter to her counselor asking that she be placed in the AP class the next school year. She was shocked and doubted herself some but I reassured her and she decided to face the challenge.

The fall semester of her sophomore year, I convinced her to apply for the Ryman Arts Program where students go every Sunday to work on mostly still lifes. She came to me on the day that it was due, still asking questions about how to better her project, one self portrait, and one still life. We stayed after school together with her working on it as I worked on the next day’s prep but at 4PM she still had a ways to go. I thought if I went to the post office, with the exact weight that would be sent in the container it would be sent in, then I could get it post marked and she could send it that night when she was done with it. 

So, I drove to the post office and told the post man of my student’s disadvantaged background and would he please give her a chance? However,  he absolutely refused saying that it was against their regulations. But, he gave me an alternative. He said that I could purchase the postage online and it would show that day’s date. So, that’s what I did. I went back to school, made an online account with the post office, printed out the postage, gave it to Keily, and took her home where she completed her project, and sent it out. She totally reminded me of myself at that age. I would totally procrastinate when things were a bit scary and new. It’s how many of us are.

She was accepted in the program and within 2 weeks in that program found out about the Oxbow School, a school offering a one semester junior year program where all subjects were connected to art. They had one full scholarship opportunity.

She decided to go for it. I was so proud of her. Here is this person who never drew before, who never had an art class before her 9th grade year, and she was willing to put herself out there, accepting the challenge. For this application, she was asked again to make a self portrait. She came to show me her self portrait as it was thus far and asked advice. Honestly, I didn’t realize that it was a self portrait because she told me her idea of having half the head a half skull and insects of some sort crawling out of the other side of the head. This was Keily - she is I believe the most creative student I have had. We discussed the types of insects and how to search images that would be good to look at to understand their forms and how they look when they fly. We messaged back and forth looking at and discussing the details over the next couple of weeks until she completed it. I wrote her recommendation and sent it out. 

A few weeks later she called me. In disbelief, she told me that she was chosen  to have one of the 40 spots available out of over 5,000 applicants! And then a couple of weeks later, she was chosen to receive the full scholarship!!! It cost about $28,000 dollars for the one semester program!!!!! She was nervous about not being in regular school to prepare her perhaps better for the SATs. I assured her that if she went, she would be creating work for her portfolio that would get her into a good university.

She called me during her Oxbow experience, incredulous that her PE was kayaking!!!

She had an amazing time at Oxbow with a nurturing staff that helped her realize her wonderfully wild way of looking at the world.

She was excited when she arrived back and met several students that had good GPA's, not great ones, who were accepted into strong art programs that weighed portfolios much higher than GPA's when it came to being accepted into the art program.

She came back to our school for her spring junior year term. I was so fortunate to have her in my ceramics class where she is did some exceptionally creative work!

I know that Keily will do great things in this world. She also writes well so she may write for film too. The sky’s the limit for someone who has such perseverance and courage!!!

Keily was so very happy to have me show some of her work here and I am so honored!:) The work below are a couple of things that she put in her portfolio.

When she was deciding where she would like to go to college, Keily was given an expense paid visit to Princeton. She flew in an airplane for the first time! And they picked her up by limousine!













Here are some of her ceramics pieces. The first one here (3 photos) was shown in the American Museum of Ceramic Art in their High School Exhibition

This sculpture below was was part of her portfolio and I featured it in my You Tube video showing how to make Talons:


She ended up receiving a Free Ride (all expenses) Scholarship to Santa Barbara State, and a Full Tuition Scholarship to UCLA. It was an excruciating decision to make but she chose to go to UCLA!

She is now there and receiving great comments from her teachers! She is a magnificent young woman!!!