As a kid, sunlight streams through her bedroom window. Lily Greendyk ’29 sits at her desk listening to music. Her hands are stained with pastels as she looks down at the drawing of a bowl of fruit.
Greendyk has been drawing since she was a little kid. As the youngest of three, she often found herself alone, so she drew to pass the time.
“Drawing was never a decision I made. It was just always something I did,” she says.
She loved art and realized she wanted to study it in college. While looking through a list of Texas universities, she stumbled upon Trinity University and discovered the Baker Duncan Art Scholarship.
This merit-based, renewable scholarship awards up to $10,000 annually to incoming students interested in pursuing a major in studio art.
While researching the scholarship, Greendyk realized she could major in other fields while still pursuing an art degree.
“I really like that I can explore any field [at Trinity],” Greendyk says. “I'm majoring in a lot of different things, which I couldn't really do anywhere else.”
Greendyk has already committed to majoring in art as part of her scholarship, but she’s also interested in pairing it with a math or history major. She plans to pursue architecture after graduating from Trinity, and by combining her interests in math and history, she can learn more about how art is employed across these fields.
In her math and art classes, she’s learned how “math is pretty.” In her art classes, she learns how mathematical patterns like the Fibonacci sequence or the rule of thirds can be employed in art. In her history classes, she can focus on how art relates to events from that time period.
Even her art classes make her more well-rounded. While Greendyk mostly draws, this semester she is taking classes in sculpture and photography. These are two art mediums she hasn't tried before, and she never thought she would be able to explore new aspects of art.
“It's cool getting to work with all these different mediums and having a space to do that because that's not really something that's easy to do if you can’t access a darkroom or clay easily,” she says.
Greendyk’s art professors also emphasize exploring other fields. Eleonore Lee, MFA, told her that “it's really important that art stays a passion and not something that you feel required to do.” This encouragement spurred Greendyk to take a break from art when she needs to by participating in other areas of campus.
Outside of academics, Greendyk is part of the SPURS sorority and is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Back at her desk in her dorm, Greendyk reminisces about when she’d draw to pass the time as a child. Now, supported by her Baker Duncan Scholarship, she is experimenting with art full-time and exploring how she can apply her new skills after Trinity.