Photo contest kicks off WVU summer fun

The summer months at West Virginia University can be a time of friends, fun and adventure.

The WVU Extended Learning Office is working to highlight the summer experience through its new "Wish You Were Here" e-photo postcard contest.

"The purpose of the contest is to try to raise awareness about summer programs," said Lynn Reinke, director of communications for the Extended Learning program. "So we came up with the idea of having a contest so that if we could get students to send e-postcards to their friends saying that they’re taking summer classes or that they have taken summer classes that may be a really great way for students to help us promote the benefits of summer classes."

To enter the contest, students are asked to upload as many as 10 original photos highlighting the essence of summer to create visually stunning e-postcards.

The photos can be of campus, their homes, an adventure trip or activities with friends.

The grand prize winner will receive $500 toward WVU summer tuition, and three $250 prizes will be granted for winners in the categories of people, places and things.

In order to be eligible for prizes, students must email their here" e-postcard to friends.

"We came up with this idea of ‘Wish You Were Here,’ because one of the things in the summer is that it’s really, really nice here in Morgantown. But our students travel all over the world in the summer, and they go on these adventure trips, both in the state, in the region and out in the West," Reinke said.

Reinke said she believes the contest is a great way to allow students to embrace their creative sides while highlighting the
benefits of the various summer programs the University offers.

"We just see all these wonderful photos that students have taken. We were thinking that this might be a good way, with the Instagram generation, to let them use some of their creativity to promote
summer (programs) to highlight some of the stuff that they do and enable us to promote the summer classes."

Reinke said students often hold misconceptions about the summer term, and she hopes to be able to eliminate some of them through the contest.

"I think sometimes people come in, and especially once they come from high school, and they hear ‘summer classes’ – people often think remedial classes, or that you’re being punished to take a summer class or something," she said. "But in college, and here at WVU, we have so many really fun and interesting classes in the summer. Also, the summer term isn’t like the other traditional terms. It’s flexible scheduling; you can find classes that are three weeks and get three credits in three weeks."

Reinke said other courses involve travel opportunities.

"We want students to be thinking and realize that the summer term isn’t like fall and spring in many ways," she said.

"We have nontraditional scheduling, and then we also have some other opportunities that they couldn’t have during the year."

For more information or to submit an entry to the photo contest, visit www.summer.wvu.edu/contest.