Maui Community College Upward Bound student wins national photo essay award

Maui College
Contact:
Nancy Hasenpflug, (808) 984-3299
Maui Community College
Kristen Bonilla, (808) 956-5039
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Dec 7, 2006


KAHULUI, Maui — Constantine Bolo, a junior at Lanaʻi High School and participant in Maui Community College‘s Upward Bound Program, recently received national recognition for a photo essay he produced and entered in the 2006 TRIO Quest national competition.

Bolo won a bronze medal for his photo essay entitled "Sweetheart Rock," which describes the legend behind the Lanaʻi landmark through words and photos.

Bolo entered the competition as a participant in Maui CC‘s Upward Bound 2006 summer residential program. Upward Bound, a program designed to prepare low-income, first-generation high school students for post-secondary education, requires all summer residential students to participate in the TRIO Quest competition as part of the computer science class. Student projects are judged by an Upward Bound panel and only the top three are submitted to the national TRIO Quest competition. Though previous Maui CC Upward Bound students have received semi-finalist and honorable mention honors, this is the first year a student has placed in the top awards.

TRIO programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) and serve primarily low-income, underrepresented and/or first-generation students in efforts to prepare them for higher education success. The TRIO Quest competition was first funded by the USDOE to encourage TRIO students and programs to begin to master 21st-century learning skills. The competition is directed by the TRIO Training Program at the University of Washington and is guided by a national advisory committee initially created by the USDOE.

Students from around the country participate annually in the TRIO Quest competition in one of three categories — TRIO ThinkQuest, PhotoEssay, or Media Quest. TRIO ThinkQuest requires teams of three-four pre-college students to research, write, and create educational websites. The PhotoEssay competition is open to college and pre-college students in TRIO programs and requires students to create written material that is enhanced by images they took and manipulated for the web. Media Quest, also open to all TRIO students, allows students to submit an audio, video, or multimedia creation based on a topic of choice.

More than 100 educational websites, 180 photo essays, and more than 40 Media Quest activities were submitted for judging in the 2006 competition. Of the 100 TRIO ThinkQuest entries, only 15 made it to the final judges for awards, while 13 of the 180 photo essay entries and 11 of the Media Quest submissions became finalists in the competition.

Bolo‘s photo essay can be viewed online at http://depts.washington.edu/trio/quest/photoessay/final06.html.

For more information, contact Maui CC Upward Bound Director Nancy Hasenpflug at (808) 984-3299 or visit the program‘s website at www.hawaii.edu/maui/upward.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/maui/upward