Sarah Vander Ploeg’s interest in Vincent van Gogh has existed for as long as she can remember, falling in love with his work as a young girl. The original attraction to his art probably had almost as much to do with Sarah’s Dutch ancestry (note her last name) and artist mother as it did van Gogh’s talent, unique vision, and awe-inspiring use of color. At any rate, the numerous van Gogh prints hanging in the author’s rooms both at home and at school now attest to her love for his work.
Graduating from Eastern Christian High School (North Haledon, NJ) in 2003, Sarah took a rather unconventional path to Princeton: she first spent a year following her passion for classical music study and worship music (among many other academic ventures) at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. After this fantastic encounter with the cold Mid West, where she met many incredible people and benefited from many life-changing experiences, Sarah made the decision to come back to New Jersey to give the Princeton lifestyle a try. Although she is continually under more stress than she has ever been before (if that can be believed) here at Princeton, she is truly enjoying the opportunity to belong to this amazing community. For once in her life, she is not considered strange for considering politics, music, psychology and physics as equally intriguing and equally probable to be subjects for further study. Imagine that!
While Sarah’s extracurricular love for the visual arts is strong, as well as an addiction to poetry, her true artistic passion lies in music, and she keeps herself busy with her vocal and viola studies (as well as participating in the Princeton University Orchestra, Chapel Choir, and Agape Christian Fellowship). She would someday love to either be a conductor, music professor, arts lawyer, or professional performer, and is considering pursuing a masters degree in vocal performance after concluding her time at Princeton. These possibilities have led her friends to tease her about becoming a “singing lawyer,” who would “sing an aria to present her case,” which she playfully ignores. No matter which area eventually becomes her career, the arts will certainly continue to play a major role in her life.