Education Abroad 2010 photo and video contest winners

Video contest winner

During the 2010 spring break, I traveled with a group of artists to Guatemala to work hands-on with students at an elementary school in Cantel. During my stay, I took footage of the people I met, their area and their craft.

Photo contest category winners

Academic

Zahra Haider
London, England
University of Westminster
Spring 2010

Though I studied in London, I was fortunate enough to visit Paris for a day. Everyone takes pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but I think this perfectly captures student life in Paris, how being a student in Paris is both fascinating and easygoing.

Open

Carter Tuttle
Barbados
VCU faculty-led program
Summer 2010

This picture was taken in the capital city of Bridgetown. The group of students entered a small shop and while doing so I asked the store’s security officer if I could take a picture. This was the friendly pose that he struck.

People

Laura Keuny
Karatu, Tanzania
Duke Engineering World Health Summer Institute
Summer 2010

I helped install a solar powered system at a local school sponsored by the U.S. There were hundreds of children there and I don’t think they have seen many foreigners so they really wanted to play with us. They also seemed to really like my hair.

Places

Elizabeth Sobka
Florence, Italy
European Heritage Institute
Spring 2010

I studied abroad with the European Heritage Institute program in Florence, Italy, at Lorenzo de' Medici Scuola. This photograph was taken in the town of Riva del Garda located in Northern Italy. The image portrays myself in the traditional yoga posture “tree pose” atop the Bastion, a Venetian fortress built in 1508 on the slopes of Mount Rocchetta. The Bastion offers a stunning view of Riva del Garda, Lake Garda, and the surrounding mountains. It was truly a photo opportunity not to be missed!

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Grand prize winner

Baccho Umbertis
University of Ghana, International Student Exchange Program
Fall 2008

This photo was taken during a fieldtrip through my drumming class. We were invited to attend (and perform, though none of us knew it) at a durbar, or festival, in the town of Dzodze in honor of the palm tree. The Palm Festival is an important event for the community and comes at a time when the palm trees are tapped for their juices, which are then fermented and sold as palm wine or distilled and sold as palm gin.

This photo is of the opening ceremonies during which a young palm tree is paraded in front of the gathered crowd. The goats, though entertaining, were not officially part of the ceremony, they just wandered through.

Category winners

Academic

Mario Salinas
VCUQatar
Spring 2009

Muslim students interacting during the Mousharaka: Icograda Design Week in Qatar at VCUQ.

People

Beranger LeFranc
Peru, VCU Summer Education Abroad
Summer 2009

Though most of the people climbing Peruvian Ruins are tourists, the occasional traditional Quechua native would pass. This man was hauling a huge load of hay, wearing only simple leather sandals. I had to sneak this photograph, as he would shoot me dirty looks when I pointed my camera toward him.

Places

Hannah Wray
Fashion in Florence, VCU Summer Education Abroad
Summer 2009

Nothing could have prepared me for the grandeur of seeing Venice in person. The masses of intertwining streets, waterways and shops were overwhelming. The city itself is unique in the fact that there is nowhere in the world with which to compare it. I was amazed at how the city was able to function without the use of any automobiles. Everywhere I looked there were quaint shops and restaurants. It was life such as I had never experienced before. The flow of daily activities was laid back and casual, as if every person was simply content with experiencing life moment to moment.

When I was standing on a bridge in the heart of the city that looked out over the main waterway, I snapped this photo. In my opinion, it was the most accurate portrayal of how the city appeared to me. When viewing this particular picture, it mentally takes me back to all my fond memories while traveling abroad. I feel that it shows the diversity of other cultures in the world when compared to our own. I love imagining that I live in one of the buildings in my photograph and can have the joy of waking up every morning and looking out over the water and the activity of the city.

Open

Erica Lamberta
Egypt, International Independent Study
Summer 2009

In this photo, our team is at the pyramids of Giza riding camels into the desert on a hot day. It was the beginning our short three week journey.

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Grand prize winner

Amanda Wilson
International Internship in India
Summer 2008

This picture may seem random and in that case it captures India in its essence. In India, randomness becomes the norm. While riding in a rickshaw I snapped this photo that soon became a very key tool in explaining India. Where else have you ever seen a man on a motorbike — wearing no helmet — next to a camel and a bus following one another on a not-so-urban street?  

Category winners

Academic

Joel Nickols
VCU in Guatemala: Spanish Language
Summer 2008

Fellow students Clay McDonald, Mary Burnette, Bonnie Scott and Vanessa Banocy listen to a Mayan weaver describe how to use classic Mayan weaving instruments in San Antonio Aguas Calientes.

Open

Maria Goller
VCU in Barbados: History and Culture in the Caribbean
Summer 2008

This photo is from the end of the Crop Over festival in Barbados. Crop Over culminates with an all day party and parade called Kadooment. People dress in elaborate and brightly colored costumes. This man stood out because instead of showing skin, his entire body was covered in bright feathers as he walked the streets in extreme heat and humidity.

People

Scott Miller
VCU Partnership exchange to Fudan University in Shanghai, China
Fall 2007

This photo shows Chinese twins sitting on the Great Wall eating candy.

Places

Carly Hanchin
International Student Exchange Program participant at the Université de Caen, France
Spring 2008

After arriving in France I visited the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. In the bitter cold of Normandy’s winter, 50 exchange students and I piled in a bus and crossed the unpredictable road from the mainland to this intermittent island. The tide had not flooded the route, so we arrived with ease.

Mont Saint-Michel is special to me because it was one of my first visuals of France. When I was younger, my neighbor traveled to France and brought back a poster of Mont Saint-Michel. That image stuck in my head and I knew I had to see it for myself.

Just moments before leaving the town, I looked up and saw this view of the abbey. It was breathtaking. There wasn’t a cloud in the cold blue sky, and a French national flag was waving in the wind. It was the epitome of picturesque.

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Grand prize winner

Laura Sullivan

Monks in Laos gave us advice on which temples to visit.

Category winners

Academic

Jennifer Phillips

These Guatemalan girls are coming from or going to school. Two are dressed in Catholic school attire and the other dressed in traditional Mayan clothing. In Antigua, the Mayan culture is not often celebrated. It’s common that Mayan children have to abandon their Mayan culture when they begin school.

People

Teddy Taylor

This photo was taken while waiting in line to enter the Vatican’s museum. The woman in the front is selling scarves while the man plays the accordion for the line.

Places

Betsy Schnibbe

After reaching Machu Picchu, my sister Jenna and I climbed to what they call the cemetery at Machu Picchu and took this.

Open

Zachary Helminiak

The miscellaneous photo is in Budapest, Hungary. The photo is of the reflection of the Fisherman’s Bastion in a building across the street. You can see me taking the picture on the right in the fourth panel from the bottom. I thought this was interesting look at something very old in the reflection of a modern building.

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