The annual Adventures in Study Abroad and My Hometown photography contest returned to the International Cultural Center on Wednesday, offering students a chance to showcase their experiences and perspectives through the lens of a camera.
The exhibit brings together photos taken by Texas Tech students both national and international, celebrating cultural exchange, identity and storytelling through photography. Each year, a juror selects winning images that highlight not only how students see the world, but how they see themselves within it.
Mattie Moriearty, the senior administrator for International Relations and exhibit coordinator, said she enjoys seeing the photos each year and believes photography is a valuable tool for self expression.
“Photography can be powerful because it’s people sharing what they care about,” she said. “They decide what part of their home and what part of their experience they want to share.”
Moriearty said she organizes five to six exhibits each year, but this specific event is the only one sourced strictly by students. The photos are judged by the juror, Robert Peasley, the associate dean of the Honors College, based on aesthetics and photographic principles.
Texas Tech International Affairs hosts a competition allowing students to submit photos from their travels in study abroad or pictures from home in the International Cultural Center Oct. 22, 2025.
Jake Cooper
First place in the My Hometown category — which focuses on international students’ home city — went to Naimul Arefie, a first-year chemical engineering graduate student from Bangladesh. His photo depicted a tree covered in fresh snow as a bird took flight from its branches with Dunbar Historical Lake in the background.
He said he chose the photo as he finds himself there often because it reminds him of home but also showcases the first time he encountered snow.
“This photo is very important to me because it was my first snowfall. In my home, there is no snowfall at all,” he said. “So, the day that I took this photo, it was the first snowfall in my life.”
In the Study Abroad category, which focuses on the location a student traveled to during their study abroad trips, first place went to Ella Stewart, a fourth-year English major from Dallas.
She said her photo of rowboats drifting down a river in Venice, Italy was significant because it showcases the vacation she took with two of her closest friends during their Mediterranean vacation.
Texas Tech International Affairs awards the top three contest entrees in photo categories of “Adventures in Study Abroad” and “My Hometown” in the International Cultural Center Oct. 22, 2025.
Jake Cooper
“Two of my best friends from Colorado visited me, and I took them to Venice,” Stewart said. “I kind of took them all over Italy. So that was a really special trip. It was raining a lot of the time, but it was still beautiful.”
Among the finalists in the Study Abroad category was Palloma Guerra, a first-year history graduate student from Dallas, who captured a photo of a bright pink flower blooming against a green swampy backdrop of the Cham ruins, an ancient temple site on the coast of Vietnam.
“It’s just a swamp, so it’s not beautiful, but then there’s this pink flower popping out in the midst of all of the thickness,” Guerra said. “That is why it caught my eye, because of the color. It just popped out of the brown and the green.”
Moriearty said photography is a way to see life through someone else’s eyes, and the Adventures in Study Abroad and My Hometown photography contest allows students to express their differing viewpoints of the world.
“I think photography is just a good look into someone else’s perspective,” she said.
The competition was hosted as a part of International Affairs’ 2025 International Week, which began on Oct. 18. The week’s next event is the Fulbright Alumni Reception on Thursday at the International Cultural Center.