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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhotography can be powerful because it\u2019s people sharing what they care about,\u201d she said. \u201cThey decide what part of their home and what part of their experience they want to share.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
Jake Cooper<\/p>\n
First place in the My Hometown category \u2014 which focuses on international students\u2019 home city \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis photo is very important to me because it was my first snowfall. In my home, there is no snowfall at all,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, the day that I took this photo, it was the first snowfall in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Texas Tech International Affairs awards the top three contest entrees in photo categories of \u201cAdventures in Study Abroad\u201d and \u201cMy Hometown\u201d in the International Cultural Center Oct. 22, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jake Cooper<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of my best friends from Colorado visited me, and I took them to Venice,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’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,\u201d Guerra said. \u201cThat is why it caught my eye, because of the color. It just popped out of the brown and the green.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think photography is just a good look into someone else’s perspective,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The competition was hosted as a part of International Affairs\u2019 2025 International Week, which began on Oct. 18. The week\u2019s next event is the Fulbright Alumni Reception on Thursday at the International Cultural Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual Adventures in Study Abroad and My Hometown photography contest returned to the International Cultural Center on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1837,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-17766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lavida","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}