Kenley Stark ’11 found her niche through an internship she had at Hamilton, where she majored in art history and philosophy. During her College years, Stark interned at galleries large and small, at museums, at an art nonprofit and, finally, at an art auction house.
“I knew I wanted to work in the arts in some regard, and was fairly sure that I preferred a more commercial setting to the academic realm of museums and doctoral programs,” Stark says. “I learned and gained so much from each of the internships I conducted, but none of them felt like quite the right long-term fit for me.”
Then, during her stint at the auction house, both the firm's general counsel and a prominent art lawyer delivered lectures to the interns, and Stark was riveted. “I recalled one of the first papers I wrote in Professor John McEnroe’s intro Art History class on the repatriation issues surrounding the Parthenon marbles, and I felt I’d found my calling,” she says.
Stark turned her attention to law school and graduated from Duke University Law. She’s taken a job with Proskauer Rose in New York City, where she’ll work in the group that handles trusts and estates. “The firm’s group represents intellectual property owners, performing artists, and art collectors and investors, among others, providing legal advice about gift and estate planning,” Stark says.
Hamilton, she says, gives students opportunities to tailor their academic plans to suit their passions and goals. She proves her point: Her sophomore and junior years she co-curated an exhibition at the Emerson Gallery, and she studied in Florence, Italy, during her junior year.