Abby Guthmann Wins Grand Prize in ACM Photo Contest

Abby Guthmann’s study-abroad experience in Tanzania generated a lifetime of memories—and an award-winning photograph. The senior biology major from St. Paul, Minn., was selected as the Grand Prize winner in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s 2013-14 Off-Campus Study Photo Contest. Guthmann’s photo, “Girls in the Shambass” was taken while Guthmann was hiking through the Usambara Mountains in northern Tanzania. “Children would often run after us and ask for their pictures to be taken,” said Guthmann. “These two followed me through the shambass, hoping to get a few more pictures. After asking if I could take one more, they grinned and clenched their fists with excitement as I took the photo and showed it to them.” Guthmann traveled to Africa in fall 2012 to participate in the ACM Tanzania program Ecology and Human Origins at the University of Dar-es-Salaam. Her photo was selected among 109 entries submitted for the contest by ACM colleges’ off-campus study offices. Guthmann’s winning photograph will be part of a traveling digital photo exhibit at ACM campuses during winter and spring 2014. This is the second year in a row that a Lawrence University student has taken home the Grand Prize in the ACM Off-Campus Study Photo Contest. Xavier Al-Mateen ’13 took top honors last year with a photo he took during a study-abroad trip to Senegal