Student Photography

Here are a few of the many, many great images captured by our students yesterday. We wish we could post all of them!

photo by Evan

photo by Madeline

photo by Mackenzie

photo by Natalie

photo by Samantha

photo by Valerie

Photos from the first day

Hello all,

Today we started the day laying out ground rules and making goals for our time here in Bar Harbor. The students drew a circle (which turned into a rather cute bear, see photo below!) and together we brainstormed a list of qualities that we wanted in our circle, such as creativity, patience and love. We also decided on a few of the things we'd rather leave out, like disrespect and gossip. Afterward, we got out and played a few icebreaker games. In one of the photographs, we are playing a fun game called Evolution.

Then, after a technical talk, we turned the students loose in the Bar Harbor community. Tonight, we'll critique their first assignments. Look for some student photos on the blog soon!

-Elie and Mike

Greetings from College of the Atlantic

Today all 15 students made it to the dorms at College of the Atlantic, our home base for the next 10 days. As the students arrived, card games began. We all shared dinner together at Take-a-Break, College of the Atlantic's dining hall which has been rated best college food by the Princeton Review.

After dinner we got to know one another by sharing pictures of our families, friends, pets and other interests. By the end of the day many of the students had found connections to each other. Two girls, who happen to be roommates, are both from towns called Wayne. Two girls have apple allergies. Another set of roommates both play field hockey.

It's a fantastic group of students, and we can't wait to get out into the Bar Harbor community tomorrow with our cameras.

Until soon,
Elie and Mike

A video welcome to Bar Harbor

NG On Campus: Bar Harbor from Elie Gardner on Vimeo.

Meet the On Campus Leaders

Photography

Elie Gardner. University of Missouri, B.J. Elie is an award-winning, St. Louis-based photojournalist and educator. She majored in Journalism at the University of Missouri and spent six months studying in San José, Costa Rica at the University of Costa Rica. She studied journalism and photography with the Associated Press’ Diverse Voices/Diverse Visions program and in a six-week fellowship at the Poynter Institute. Elie was a crew member for the Missouri Photo Workshop in 2003 and 2005, and directed the photo sequence at the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists’ Minority Journalism Workshop in 2007 and 2008, a position she will hold again in fall 2009. She completed photography internships with the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Grand Forks Herald, and The Tico Times in San José, Costa Rica, and worked as the online photo editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She is currently an adjunct professor at Webster University and a staff photographer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Elie is proficient in Spanish. Some of her photography, multimedia and editing work may be viewed online at www.eliegardner.com.

Photography

Mike Kautz. Middlebury College, B.A.; University of Montana, M.F.A. Mike majored in English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury, where he spent a semester at Lund University in Sweden and a winter term in the Dominican Republic on a traveling writing workshop with the author Julia Alvarez. After graduating he completed a semester program in documentary photography at the Salt Institute in Portland, Maine, where his subjects included moose hunters, French-Canadian musicians, and volunteer firefighters. Mike took on a photojournalism internship at the Salt Lake Tribune, spent three summers working as a publications photographer for Overland Adventures, LLC, in England, France, Switzerland, the Western U.S., and Alaska, and worked as an instructor at a National Geographic Photo Camp in Maine. He served as huts manager for the Appalachian Mountain Club in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where he oversaw one hundred seasonal employees and managed the AMC’s High Mountain Search and Rescue operations. Mike recieved a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Montana. Some of his photography may be viewed on-line at www.quistphoto.com. Mike co-led the National Geographic Student Expedition to Tanzania in 2008.

Welcome!

Welcome family and friends of National Geographic Student Expeditions participants!

We have created this blog in order to keep you updated on the progress of your child’s National Geographic Student Expedition this summer. We hope that occasional updates throughout the program will help keep you informed about the activities, projects and successes of the program. Please keep in mind that the leaders’ first priority is the students and the program. If updates are infrequent, it is likely due to the group’s very busy schedule. Please know that any important issues that arise during the program will be discussed and resolved with leaders and parents by phone, not through the blog.

Best wishes from us all at National Geographic Student Expeditions