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Not Taking a Break From Art

Ben Rupp's passion has always been art. Someday, he hopes to be a graphic designer with his own business, preferably in Florida. It takes a perfectionist with lots of vision to design logos, posters, and letterheads. That's the kind of work Ben wants to do. He can see the potential in type design and computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator that allow you to shape images.

Although Ben was born in Washington, D.C., he grew up in Florida, spending nine years in Miami before his family moved to the Orlando area. Ben graduated from Orangewood Christian School in Maitland, Florida, which had approximately 300 hundred students in the high school. He says he liked attending a small high school where you "knew everyone's first and last name and all of the teachers."

In high school, Ben took advanced drawing, graphic design, painting, AP Studio Art (Drawing Portfolio), and all of the other art classes he could. Ben says, "I always wanted to take the hardest art classes and the most prestigious courses."

College wasn't a question for Ben. Both his parents graduated from college. "It never occurred to me that I wouldn't," he said, "I just had to decide which one and then strive to get into the one I wanted." Ben took the SAT; but, he feels, it was his portfolio that helped him enter a fine arts program. Now a freshman at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Ben likes being in a college that is close enough so that he can go home on weekends if he wants. Ben's twin brother attends college in Georgia.

The drawing Ben did that was selected for the College Board's 2005 Studio Art Exhibition is entitled Taking a Break. It was done in colored pencil and shows his friends during a study break at home. Ben reports that it was the last work of art he did in his senior year.

Asked what he would say to other students who might be thinking about going to college, Ben replies, "First off, pray about it, talk with your family. See what your future will hold if you go to college. Think about the positives and negatives, and eventually you'll see that college is the best choice."