SDSU grad turns a high school museum visit into a lifelong passion

Angelica Castillo remembers the exact moment she fell in love with art museums. During her junior year at Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista, her advanced placement art history class took a field trip to the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park. 

“It was such an impactful experience,” Castillo said. “I got to see how a museum worked on the inside, and it stuck with me. I feel like art historians are that great in-between that are able to interpret the art to the public, and museums are where that happens. I left there saying this is what I wanted to do.”

Six years later, Castillo is set to graduate from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in art history and make her mark on the world of museums. 

Castillo, whose minor is in women, gender and sexuality studies, has already made her mark in the local art history community. She helped found SDSU’s Art History Club, serves on the board of the San Diego Emerging Museum Professionals and received a scholarship from the California Association of Museums.  

One of Castillo’s proudest accomplishments occurred this year when she won an undergraduate research excellence award at the SDSU Student Symposium for her research project “Reclaiming Personhood Through Participatory Art: An Analysis of Yoko Ono and Adrian Piper’s Works.”

“I wanted to cry,” Castillo said. “The research took so long, and it was the first time I had presented my own research, and I didn’t know if it would resonate with the public. The fact that it did felt very validating and gratifying. It was something that I was very proud of.”

Early during her time at SDSU, however, doubts crept into Castillo’s head about whether an art history degree and career were practical. Her parents didn’t want her to pursue the arts; they preferred she pursue a career in the medical field. Her first year at SDSU was an “eerie” experience, she said: the campus was just reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, and she struggled to connect with the campus as a commuter student.  

Two interactions kept her on course. 

The first was a conversation with her then coordinated-care advisor, Virginia Loh-Hagan, during the spring semester of her first year. 

“She mentioned something along the lines of how passion is one of the most important things to consider when choosing what to study, even if it means having setbacks or falling down a couple of times, because passion will pick you back up,” Castillo said. 

The next - and perhaps, the most important - milestone was when she started working at the Women’s Resource Center during the fall semester of her second year in 2022.

It was in this fellowship with the WRC that she met Amanda Beardsley, the WRC Faculty Scholar who was Castillo’s supervisor during her fellowship, and the owner of an art history doctorate.

Castillo recalls another pivotal moment during her fellowship when Beardsley gave a presentation on the intersection of contemporary art and feminism. Something clicked inside of her, Castillo said. 

“It was my introduction to more modern and contemporary art, and I thought it was so cool,” Castillo said. “I left the presentation saying, ‘I want to be her.’ She definitely had a way of influencing me that seemed almost effortless.

“She also had a way of merging both of my interests in art history and women, gender and sexuality studies in ways that opened up new modes of learning for me,” she said. “I don’t think I would have stuck with art history if it wasn’t for her,” she said. 

In addition to her art history advocacy, Castillo has served in various capacities at the WRC, including as a women and gender equity mentor and a programming lead, and she earned a community and coalition builder award from the center in 2024. 

“There is a poetry to how Angelica has grown over the years,” Beardsley said. “I've witnessed a student driven by a deep passion for museums and art strengthen student presence in art history at SDSU with her service in the Art History Club, embody the role of a mentor in the Women and Gender Equity Program, and stretch herself to bring critical social justice frameworks and a sincere care for others to the forefront of all she does.”

Beardsley sees a promising future in the art world for Castillo.

“With this impressive legacy at such an early point in her career, I see Angelica not only being an essential part of the art world, but also as someone the arts would be extremely fortunate to have,” she said. 

Castillo also credited her entire experience with the Women’s Resource Center as having played a significant role in her growth while on campus.

“I think it’s rare to find such a loving and supportive community that you can also call your workplace, and I really would not have the confidence that I do now without the experiences I’ve gained from there,” she said. “There’s a quote that I heard years ago that talks about how we’re all a mosaic and that we’re made up of all those we've met and all the things we've been through, which is also a bit of a nerdy art history metaphor.

“But I think that holds true to the people I’ve met at the WRC, like director Elzbeth Islas and Amanda. They’re people that I constantly look up to and feel privileged to have them as pieces of my mosaic,” Castillo said. 

After graduation, Castillo said she plans to take a gap year before pursuing her master’s degree. She currently works as a visitor experience associate at the Timken museum — the same museum that sparked her passion, and will continue to do so during her time between degree programs. 

“Five to 10 years from now, I still see myself being involved in museum spaces,” Castillo said. “I feel incredibly proud of what I’ve accomplished. The experience at SDSU has been nothing like I ever experienced, and I am so glad that I stuck with my major. It has shaped who I am now and into the future.”