Avery Lin ’25 got to connect with Emily Trespas’ family and share his artwork with them.
The Emily Trespas Memorial Scholarship was created this school year when the family of the late Emily Trespas funded the program to commemorate the art instructor’s legacy at Andover. Beyond the passion Trespas shared teaching at Andover for over two decades, her legacy now extends to art students at Andover who are pursuing art in their pre-college work during the summer. Avery Lin ’25, who has been accepted into the Tufts SMFA summer program, was granted the first fund through the scholarship.
“It’s truly a great honor for me to receive this scholarship, and I want to express my gratitude to the Trespas family and the Art Department for endowing me this opportunity. Art has always been an important part of my life. From doodling on restaurant menus to studio art courses at Andover, I’ve always dedicated time to pursuing my passion. This summer, I’m excited to spend an entire month at the Tufts SMFA program, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help in pursuing my interest in art”, said Lin.
Lin also mentioned the joy behind connecting with the Trespas family during the process and being able to embody Trespas’ love for arts.
“When I found out that I was receiving the Emily Trespas Memorial Scholarship, I did some research on Ms. Trespas and the inspiring legacy she left at Andover. It was also a nice experience when her husband and her mother reached out to me via email and asked me to share the work I produce this summer. Being in touch with them, I feel more gravitated and thrilled for the summer experience ahead of me,” said Lin.
Renee Silva, Instructor in Arts, acknowledged Lin’s accomplishment and shared excitement for his summer at SMFA. Silva recalled her first encounter with Lin this term as he skipped into her Advanced Drawing and Painting class, where most students identify as female.
Silva said,“It’s exciting, I was super excited when Avery told me that he got the scholarship and he will be in the summer program at SMFA. It’s also great to have more masc-aligned students pursue art beyond the classrooms: in Art 600 it’s a very female space generally, so it’s great to have diverse identities pursue art beyond taking the intro classes.”
Silva continued, “He came into the class very highly skilled in representational drawing and shared that he was self-taught. He was able to surpass the intro level drawing and come into the advanced class with his own skills.”
The Art Department hopes that more students will take advantage of the scholarship in the future. According to Thayer Zaeder ’83, Instructor in and Chair of the Art Department, the scholarship is open to all rising Uppers and Seniors in supporting their pre-college program during the summer.
“We decided to create this scholarship to further highlight and recognize the amazing contributions Ms. Trespas made to arts education at Andover over her more than two decades as an instructor. Avery is the first official recipient and others will follow as students continue to learn about this opportunity… Our selection process is evolving as interest in the scholarship grows but essentially as long as the students applying have a strong commitment to our visual arts program then they will be considered for the scholarship,” said Zaeder.
Similarly, Silva echoed the aspirations of the scholarship and viewed the program as a window for any students intending to pursue visual arts more seriously to look into and to experience art at a higher level.
“The scholarships are for pre-college programs so it’s really a great opportunity for students if they are considering minoring in art, art program, or art schools whatever it is, for [them] to develop [their] portfolio further and get a feel of what that experience might be like. So as a department, we really want to encourage students to look into this opportunity,” added Silva.
