by Steffanie Lindgren ’10

Bethel senior Kendra Rimmereid won Abroad View magazine’s 2009 Meta Photo Contest for her photo entitled “Colors of India.” She studied abroad in India during fall 2008. Rimmereid, who is a social studies education major, said her experience abroad will help her professionally. “Abroad I gained a lot of self-confidence and a broader worldview…It also made me more comfortable working with kids from very different backgrounds than me, which is important nowadays,” she explained.

She described her photo: “All of these girls are from rural villages around Jaipur, India. They have come to Budh Shiksha Samiti (a nongovernment organization) to get the quality education that they won't receive if they stay in their villages. On this particular Sunday, they are shelling pea pods for dinner. I really liked Sunday afternoons at my internship. Sunday was when everybody got to relax.”

Abroad View magazine awarded Rimmereid $50, and her photo was published on the cover of the fall 2009 issue. Rimmereid also won Bethel’s international photo contest in the cultural interaction category. In fact, it was the Office of Off-Campus/International Studies that submitted her photo to Abroad View.

In the Bethel international photo contest, 10 students are chosen as winners. Each winner receives $100, and Bethel is given the copyright to winning photos. Bethel uses the winning photos to make notecards, and profits from the notecards go to the “World-Changers Scholarships.” Associate Dean of Off-Campus Programs Vincent Peters said, “We want to intentionally make sure that we give resources to students who have financial difficulties studying abroad.”

“It [the cover photo] promoted a conversation, promoted awareness, and got Bethel noticed,” said Peters. “The credit goes to the student. That is one of our signature goals at Bethel. We work to highlight students and their experiences, to make sure that our students become globally engaged, and to create more opportunities for students to extend their study abroad experience beyond the study abroad location.”

Peters is from India and was very pleased when he learned that Rimmereid’s photo, “Colors of India,” had been selected. “This is my home,” he said. “This is what I grew up with, so on a personal level—because of my Indian heritage—I am so proud to see my cultural heritage in such a wonderful way that captures the images of India and shares the images. Seeing this picture brought me a little bit closer to home.”

Rimmereid now works at the Office of Off-Campus/International Studies as a global ambassador and student worker.