BOSP announces photo contest winners

Sept. 27, 2020, 11:10 p.m.

Bing Overseas Studies Program announced the winners and honorable mentions of their 2019-20 Photo Contest. Over 180 photo submissions were received from undergraduate students who have studied at BOSP Quarter Length Programs (including Australia, Berlin, Cape Town, Florence, Kyoto, Madrid, New York, Oxford, Paris and Santiago) and Overseas Seminars. 

The photo submissions were received in five categories: Academic Pursuit; Bing Trips; Culture, Customs and Traditions; Photo Favorite and Urban & Natural World. 

“Our annual photo contest is a great visual documentation of student experiences on our programs,” said Adrian Doyle, BOSP Associate Director of Student and Academic Services. “Many of the photos we receive are of beautiful landscapes which display the physical journeys our students take; but more important than the beautiful images are the transformative experiences they represent. The photos are a great reminder of the diverse paths our students walk as they become global citizens at Stanford.”

Check back here for the winning photos from each category over the course of this week.  

Text provided by Administrative Coordinator Sue Mathai.

BOSP announces photo contest winners
“Nestled in the Australian Outback lies a motel owned by an old couple who wanted to escape the urban and oftentimes overcrowded coastlines. In the back of their motel lies an observatory they built which they have used to admire the stars and constellations of the Southern Hemisphere like nobody else can. For groups like Stanford’s which was starting their first course in Terrestrial Ecology and Conservation, the couple would take a dozen or so students out each night to do a stargazing tour. They showed planets like Saturn and their moons, explain the significance of constellations like Sagittarius, and query us about Alpha Centauri. Oftentimes, we are caught up with what is ahead of us and hold onto what is behind us and neglect to look up and marvel the beauty of the stars and the stories they hold as they travel through the clear, moonlit sky. In this picture, the observatory lies in the middle with the red light emanating from special infrared lights the couple used to show us where we to talk. Countless stars and the Milky Way Galaxy can be seen above in all its glory in a way that many Australians would never be able to unless in the Outback. These small little surprises filled my experience of Australia and made it a place imbued with natural wonder, history, and culture almost unparalleled to anywhere else in the world.” Winner of the Urban & Natural World category: “Starry Night in the Outback” by Paul Phan from Autumn 2019-20 in Australia.
BOSP announces photo contest winners
“For thousands of years, the Aboriginal Australians lived and cultivated the land around them for survival in rough environments. While they may be only 1-3% of the Australian population today, these carvings on these ramparts signify that their knowledge and history live on and will forever be considered a sacred part of their land. Our teacher Claire Baker took us up to these “ramparts” on one of our first days of Terrestrial Ecology and Conservation class to explain to us that to properly understand and conserve the land around us is to the acknowledge the Aboriginal elders of the past, present, and future.” Honorable Mention of the Urban & Natural World category: “The Ramparts: An Aboriginal Past and Present” by Paul Phan from Autumn 2019-20 in Australia.

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