News
Vander Ploeg '08 recipient of University's top undergraduate honor
By Ruth Stevens, Office of Communications
Woodrow Wilson School senior Sarah Vander Ploeg is a co-recipient of the University's Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate, and awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. Princeton recognized the winners of the highest honors it awards to students at Alumni Day ceremonies Saturday, Feb. 23.
Vander Ploeg, who is from North Haledon, N.J., is majoring in WWS and pursuing a certificate in musical performance. She has been named a winner of a 2008 Marshall Scholarship, and will use her award to obtain a master's degree in vocal studies at the Royal College of Music in London. She also plans to work on outreach programs with an arts policy group there.
An accomplished lyric soprano, Vander Ploeg has performed many operatic and music roles, including the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience" and a lead role in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." She has been a soloist in the Princeton University Chapel Choir and a member of the Chamber Choir. She was one of the winners of the Princeton University Orchestra's 2007 Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with the orchestra, in which she also plays the viola. She was the principal viola in last April's world premiere of Prokofiev's "Boris Godunov" on campus and has performed on tours in Portugal and Austria.
Vander Ploeg's senior thesis combines her interests in public policy and the arts. It is a study of the role of music and intellectual property law in post-apartheid South Africa, where she believes that music can contribute greatly to national reconciliation. She conducted research for her thesis in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg last summer. She also has spent a semester studying arts policy and music performance at Oxford University.
"Sarah epitomizes the best of Princeton: academic brilliance, artistic creativity, public spiritedness, proven leadership and unshakeable integrity," said Robert Hutchings, diplomat in residence in the Wilson School. "She is a rising leader of exceptional promise."
During the Alumni Day ceremony, President Tilghman added, "Sarah, thank you for sharing your musical talents with us and for mastering the knowledge that will allow you to champion the arts, both onstage and off, in years to come."
Woodrow Wilson School senior Sarah Vander Ploeg is a co-recipient of the University's Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate, and awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. Princeton recognized the winners of the highest honors it awards to students at Alumni Day ceremonies Saturday, Feb. 23.
Vander Ploeg, who is from North Haledon, N.J., is majoring in WWS and pursuing a certificate in musical performance. She has been named a winner of a 2008 Marshall Scholarship, and will use her award to obtain a master's degree in vocal studies at the Royal College of Music in London. She also plans to work on outreach programs with an arts policy group there.
An accomplished lyric soprano, Vander Ploeg has performed many operatic and music roles, including the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience" and a lead role in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." She has been a soloist in the Princeton University Chapel Choir and a member of the Chamber Choir. She was one of the winners of the Princeton University Orchestra's 2007 Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with the orchestra, in which she also plays the viola. She was the principal viola in last April's world premiere of Prokofiev's "Boris Godunov" on campus and has performed on tours in Portugal and Austria.
Vander Ploeg's senior thesis combines her interests in public policy and the arts. It is a study of the role of music and intellectual property law in post-apartheid South Africa, where she believes that music can contribute greatly to national reconciliation. She conducted research for her thesis in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg last summer. She also has spent a semester studying arts policy and music performance at Oxford University.
"Sarah epitomizes the best of Princeton: academic brilliance, artistic creativity, public spiritedness, proven leadership and unshakeable integrity," said Robert Hutchings, diplomat in residence in the Wilson School. "She is a rising leader of exceptional promise."
During the Alumni Day ceremony, President Tilghman added, "Sarah, thank you for sharing your musical talents with us and for mastering the knowledge that will allow you to champion the arts, both onstage and off, in years to come."