Rice students covered nearly every continent in annual Study-Abroad Photo Contest

–A single flamingo stands, one-legged, against the dramatic blue sky of the Atacama Desert, his reflection shimmering off the largest salt flat in Chile below.

–An Aymara man in traditional dress paddles his reed-made boat across the waters of Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia, the highest navigable body of water in the world at 12,500 feet above sea level.

–Three Maasai children help drive their family’s huge herd of cattle into a thorn bush corral in Tanzania.

Best in Show at this year’s Study-Abroad Photo Contest was awarded to Shivani Raman for her image of a Chilean flamingo, titled “Reflections.”

These are just a few of the intimate, everyday moments captured by Rice students who returned recently from studying abroad in nearly every corner of the world. The images are on display now at the Ley Student Center in the annual Study-Abroad Photo Contest through March 19.

Students who studied abroad through a Rice-approved program in 2017 were invited to submit up to five entries in five different categories: people, nature, place, everyday life, and culture, customs, traditions.

“We received 111 entries in total,” said Dongming De Angelis, study abroad adviser. Of those entries, 10 were selected for first place or honorable mention in the five photo categories, with Best in Show awarded to Shivani Raman for her image of the Chilean flamingo, which she titled “Reflections.”

Brown College senior Paige DeVos won first place in two categories — people and place — and honorable mention in the culture, customs, traditions category for photos she captured with her Sony A600. Ironically, she was only able to submit a few photos from her study-abroad semester in Nepal, after accidentally leaving her camera and memory card back home in New Jersey. “I only had a few photos I happened to transfer over to my laptop, which was probably about 1/10 of my total photos,” said DeVos. “Pretty much all of my photos from my time in the Himalayas were on my camera and never got transferred over.”

“Lighting Lamps” by Paige DeVos

Still, her remaining images were arresting: prayer flags at sunset outside the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery at Namo Buddha, Nepalese women silhouetted against the gently flickering flames of butter lamps on the eve of the light festival of Tihar in the Boudha neighborhood of Kathmandu. “I was just walking around the neighborhood during the holiday celebration,” DeVos said of the chance encounter.

“The study abroad experience was really important in helping me gain confidence in entering new situations, I think,” DeVos said. “It seemed daunting to travel so far for the semester and then to spend a month alone on an independent study project in a foreign city but I managed to handled the experience quite well and I think it proved to me I was able to step outside my comfort zone.”

The awardees will have their photos highlighted on Rice Study Abroad’s website and in campus publications. The photos were unveiled Feb. 16 in an opening reception that featured cookies, brownies, lemonade and the chance to learn more about Rice’s array of study-abroad options.

The photos will remain on display in the corridor outside Rice Coffeehouse for one month, during which time students, faculty, staff and visitors are all invited to vote on their pick for the People’s Choice award by visiting the Study-Abroad Photo Contest album on Facebook. The photo with the most votes by March 19 will be declared this year’s People’s Choice winner.

“An Aymara Raft” by David Cirillo

Category: Best in Show
Winner: “Reflections” by Shivani Raman

Category: Nature
Winner: “Reflections” by Shivani Raman
Honorable mention: “Hummingbird” by Abi McDougal

Category: People
Winner: “Lighting Lamps” by Paige DeVos
Honorable mention: “Children and Their Cows” by Lucrecia Aguilar

Category: Place
Winner: “Sunset in the Hills” by Paige DeVos
Honorable mention: “River Crossing” by Max Ronkos

“Children and Their Cows” by Lucrecia Aguilar

Category: Everyday Life
Winner: “Fishing in the Mekong Delta” by David Cirillo
Honorable mention: “Own World” by Michael Moran

Category: Culture, Customs, Traditions
Winner: “An Aymara Raft” by David Cirillo
Honorable mention: “Prayer Flags” by Paige DeVos

For more information on Rice’s study-abroad programs, visit http://abroad.rice.edu/.