Shining a new light on told stories Three Bulldogs in the museum world— Vanessa Wilkie ’00, Daniel Lewis ’81, and Rick West ’65—talk about how their Redlands education helps them ask questions and tell stories. By Lilledeshan Bose ’22 and Katie Olson
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OCH TAMALE FALL 2021
Vanessa Wilkie ’00: ‘I learned not to be afraid of asking questions’ Vanessa Wilkie ’00 says University of Redlands Professor Jim Sandos’s class sparked her passion for history, but it was a semester abroad in Salzburg that led her to abandon plans for law school and move forward, by investigating the past. In Europe, not only did she get to see and touch actual sites where significant historical events occurred, she also had a frontrow seat to history in the making. Wilkie recalls, “I remember sitting at a McDonald’s [in Budapest], talking to our Hungarian host about living in a country that had been behind the Iron Curtain and what it could mean for Hungary to join NATO. You don’t get that experience easily, but Redlands made it possible.” Curating as connection Wilkie, who double-majored in government and history at Redlands, says her experience directly impacts her current work as the curator of the Huntington Library’s collections of medieval manuscripts and British history. “A liberal arts education is about figuring out logical ways to blend the subjects that seem disparate but are actually connected to the way we think about the world,” she says. “So much of U of R’s teaching is about professors asking students questions instead of the other way around. I learned not to be afraid of asking questions.”
WILLIAM VASTA
THE COLLEGE / ALUMNI /
MATT REITER
MATT REITER
ALUMNI NEWS
