Sixth-former Kevin Zhang was admitted early decision to the highly competitive arts school the Rhode Island School of Design where he plans to study industrial design.

Before Kevin started his study career at Kent, he studied at the Rectory School, a junior boarding school in Connecticut about two hours from Kent. 

Since arriving at Kent as a fourth-former, he has found the courses here both challenging and interesting. However, after only two terms at Kent, he was forced to study online due to the pandemic. After more than one year of online study, he was finally able to get back to campus. 

Because of this difficulty, he gradually adjusted to the academic pressures here, and  describes his academic life at Kent as “Challenging but decent.” For these three years of study, he has taken AP and AS courses in Calculus BC, Drawing, Stats, and Computer Science. 

As an art student, he also made many remarkable achievements during his three years at Kent. In his first year, he hadn’t decided which way he was going to go in college, and drawing and studying art were purely interest-based. Starting in his fifth-form year, he decided on his future direction and started his portfolio. 

Taking advantage of online learning, he only had classes during the night, which gave him a bunch of time to work on his portfolio in the daytime. He has also spent hours in the art studio polishing his artworks. His portfolio at the end was very diverse, including pencil painting, sculpture, oil painting, and 3D printing. 

Asked what advice he wanted to offer Kent students as he prepares to transition to RISD, he said: “If you decided to study art, you better be consistent and steadfast in your decision. Hope all of you find the major you want the most and best suits you.”