Fresh Eyes on the World: Dartmouth Study Abroad Photos
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Chen ’15 calls this photo “Generations.” He says, “During my Chinese FSP, I traveled back to my birthplace of Dalian, China. I brought with me an old photo from 1993, and I took another from the same spot. Pictured are myself, my cousin, and our grandparents.” (Photo by Mojin Chen '15, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures. FSP, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, Dartmouth Exchange Program 2012)
With Dartmouth sending more than half of its undergraduates off campus to study each year, it won’t come as a surprise that they see some amazing things. To share those views with a wider audience, the Frank J. Guarini Institute for International Education, the home of Dartmouth College's Academic Off-Campus Programs (OCP), sponsored a photography contest for students to display images they had taken during an academic off-campus experience.
The contest attracted its capacity of 150 entrants, who submitted photos in three categories: people and community; nature and physical landscape; urban and architecture. The students’ photo pictures were exhibited at the Off-Campus Programs Photo Fair in May, and other students were invited to vote for the winning photograph in each category. Contest winners were:
Michael Berger ’14, “Nonno e Figlio” (winner, People and Community)
Brian Kim ’13 “The Peacock” (runner-up, People and Community)
Anna Ghnouly ’16, “Boat with Birds” (winner, Nature and Physical Landscape)
Blaine Ponto ’14, “Kul Shi Mezian (Everything is good)” (runner-up, Nature and Physical Landscape)
Mojin Chen ’15, “NYE 2014” (winner, Urban and Architecture)
Jasmine Xu ’16, “Astronomical Clock” (runner-up, Urban and Architecture)
The photos submitted to the contest also served as a resource for the student curators who designed the exhibit of student art now hanging in the Parkhurst office of President Phil Hanlon ’77.
A video contest ran in concert with the photo contest, with 14 entrants. Video winners, as selected by Guarini Institute staff, were: Melissa Li ’15 for “Life in Fez” and Sam Rauschenfels ’14 for “The Stretch: Academic Experience” in the Academic Reflection category; and Valerie Orellana ’15 for “Paris, Je T'aime” and Matthew Bossart ’14 for “Thai Food” in the category Enjoying the Abroad Experience.
Student staffer Mandy Bowers ’14 (student director for public relations and special initiatives) organized the contests, says Lynne White Cloud, assistant director of the institute and the project mentor, supported by John D'Antonio ’14 (student director for assessment and special initiatives) and the Guarini Institute’s student advisory team and its professional staff. The contest will be repeated annually, White Cloud says.
Dartmouth offers a variety of opportunities for undergraduate students to study off-campus and earn credit toward their degrees. The four main categories of opportunities for off-campus study are Dartmouth language study abroad programs (LSA and LSA+); Dartmouth foreign study programs (FSP); Dartmouth exchange programs; and transfer credit from another four-year, degree-granting, academic institution unaffiliated with Dartmouth.
Consistently, over 50 percent of Dartmouth undergraduate students participate in one or more FSP or LSA programs before they graduate. Students returning to campus after participating on a program often speak of experiences that were rich—academically and culturally—as well as life changing.
View the full set of study abroad photos at Dartmouth flickr, complete with captions by the students commenting on their images and their experiences