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Williamsburg Arts Council scholarship helps photographer attend VCU

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A veteran is pursuing her passion for photography thanks to the Williamsburg Arts Council, which awarded its first scholarship in August. Lisa Sadler, a Yorktown native and Thomas Nelson Community College graduate, is using the $3,000 award to study photography at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The new scholarship will award the scholarship each year to one Thomas Nelson student graduating in visual or performing arts. A committee of college faculty selected Sadler based on her standout performance.

“We were thrilled,” said Diane Carr, the council’s founder and president. “This is what it’s all about.”

Sadler’s interest in photography ignited at a young age, when National Geographic photos transported her to far-off locales.

“The pictures, when you’re a kid, they’re extravagant,” Sadler said. “It’s like going into a fantasy world.”

Lisa Sadler photographs her hometown of Yorktown.
Lisa Sadler photographs her hometown of Yorktown.

After graduating high school, Sadler joined the Navy. She served as a graphic artist doing public relations for Norfolk Naval Air Station, where she created artwork for Blue Angels airshows.

Sadler later enlisted in the Army National Guard, where she serves as a sergeant. She also worked for the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory.

During her Army deployment to the Middle East, Sadler also served as public affairs representative, taking photos and writing a newsletter for friends and family at home. She credits the experiencing with showing her camera’s ability to act as a paintbrush.

Her mother’s death also encouraged her to use photography as a means of expressing her emotions. That prompted Sadler to purchase her first professional DSLR camera.

“I see it as an extension of my hand,” she said. “I just starting putting my everything into that.”

Lisa Sadler’s “Endangered” mixes a live scene and photoshop.

In 2016, Sadler attended the Defense Information School to continue her military career as a public affairs specialist photojournalist. After graduating, she returned to Yorktown and enrolled in Thomas Nelson’s photography program.

Carr lauded Sadler’s military career, public affairs experience and artistic flair in addition to Thomas Nelson’s ability to produce standout students.

Sadler filled her summer break between Thomas Nelson and VCU with a multimedia internship through the Virginia Sea Grant. VCU’s fall semester starts Thursday.

Sadler said she plans to continue pushing herself at VCU and beyond, as she’s done all her life.

“I’m a perfectionist,” she said. “I don’t want to be good. I want to be great.”