Mercedes Winchester |staff writer|
The CSUSB Office of Public Affairs is putting on an Instagram (graduation photo) contest open to all CSUSB students. The grand prize winner receives an 8GB iPod nano.
Students will have a chance to showcase their creative skills through the lens while capturing graduation themed photos. Alan Van Fleet and Lauren Morris of Public Affairs expressed that their main focus is to build a stronger campus community.
With social media being the center of attention for most young adults these days, Instagram seemed like the perfect route for this contest.
“I’m tired of the term commuter school or classified being the stereotype of CSUSB. We wanted to get away from that and find a way to get the students involved”, said Van Fleet. “It’s not about what but how: how the students approach this, how they capture the images through the lens and how creative they can be with their pictures,” he continued.
Students will take pictures of any of the various graduation ceremonies, graduates getting prepared for graduation (doing their hair, fixing their ties, adjusting their hat, etc.), or students with their cap and gown; any graduation themed shot is deemed eligible.
However, a student is limited to one win. Students are more than welcome to upload as many photos as they would like to Instagram and must send their submissions to @CSUSB (on Instagram). All photos must contain #csusbgrad, #june2012 and #csusb hashtags to qualify and must be in “good taste according to university guidelines,” according to csusb.edu.
“Pictures of an empty arena and head shots aren’t what we are looking for. We really want creativity and want to see what graduation means to you,” said Morris.
Students can follow the contest on the CSUSB Facebook page, @CSUSBnews on Twitter and by periodically checking the news.csusb.edu for updates.
The winner of the contest will be announced on June 30. The second place winner will receive gifts from the Coyote Bookstore such as sweats, sweatshirts and t-shirts. The third place winner will receive a grad pack from Alumni Affairs.
“By using more social media we are hoping that the students will want to become more engaged in student activities on campus and encouraged to do more after participating in this Instagram contest. This is new to both myself and Lauren and we hope to build relationships with the students,” continued Van Fleet.
“Although the students will not be judged on the amount of likes their photo contains, we encourage them to like the other students work and to become familiar with Instagram. We want connections and relationships with the students to be built in hopes that the students will want to push themselves in the contest, and in the end we hope the contest will result in students building a bigger community environment,” said Morris.
The three judges from the Public Affairs office consist of writers, graphic designers and industrial oriented editors.
Anyone affiliated with public affairs is not allowed to participate in the contest.