Josephine Chai

Josephine Chai

Greek and Roman Art History

Josephine Chai
Josephine is an 11th grade student whose aim is to work on a Greek and Roman Art History deeper learning framework.


Josephine’s main academic passion is Greek and Roman Art History. She hopes to one day work as a curator in a museum or in some sort of arts management career. In addition to her school studies, Julia is also currently studying for the SAT.


University admission result

★ New York University


Scope of the program


Overall structure

  • The course was centered on the relationship between ancient Greek and Roman art history and its ‘rebirth’ during the Italian and European Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century.
  • The discussion revolved around theoretical issues related to the value of representation and mimesis, the meaning of art in different social contexts and the role of patrons.
  • Josephine and her mentor discussed ancient aesthetic theory and ideas of art as well as the social background of the production of artworks and art historical methodology, in order to prepare the ground for the final research.
  • The same was carefully done for the Renaissance, starting from its medieval antecedents (Gothic art), as well as with some major artistic innovations as the invention of linear perspective.
  • Josephine and her mentor also delved into themes such as the conception of space and nature and the role of Neoplatonic philosophy in Renaissance culture.


What challenges did he face?

  • Reading and mining information out of scholarly articles in the humanities subject has not been an easy task for Josephine.
  • She needed to learn the correct terms to describe an art piece, and finding causal relationships between the historical notions she was receiving from the readings and her own observations.


How did our program help her?

  • As a deeper learning mentorship program, Josephine learnt to develop critical tools for the analysis of ancient and modern artworks. She learnt how to think, structure and effectively write an academic paper.
  • She learnt how to think, structure and effectively write an academic paper.


Matched Professor

A core curriculum instructor from Columbia University in Art Humanities and a Teaching Assistant in Art, History and Archaeology. His primary field of research is Greek and Roman archaeology.


Recommendation letter

“I would strongly recommend Josephine top-level institutions because of her brilliance and sharp thinking. I firmly believe she has the potential to become one of the best students in any class, if she properly puts her attention and methods to work on a specific goal.”

Mentor from Columbia University

Excerpts of student’s work

Excerpt from the student’s descriptive paper on the groups of artwork she selected

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