On Friday, Jan. 8, members of NSU’s Office of Student Media selected sophomore nutrition major and experiential leadership minor Shelby Van Schaick as the winner of the first Student Media Photo Contest.
With the theme of “Return of the Sharks,” social media managers within each department of the Office of Student Media posted about the first Student Media Photo Contest, where the first place winner would win a $50 Visa gift card.
The contest, which ran from Jan. 2 through the Office of Student Media’s Media Mash event on Jan. 7, had more than a handful of entries, with students entering creative photos and captions. The contest was announced on Instagram and interested students had to follow the photo contest rules, which included following all Office of Student Media department accounts, posting an appropriate “Smart Shark” photo and caption that followed CDC guidelines, tagging the department accounts in their photo and using the hashtag #ReturnOfTheSharksPhotoContest, to enter their chance to win.
Some participants found out about the contest through Instagram itself while others learned about it through word of mouth and other outside sources.
“I just saw an email [for the contest] and did it,” said Dylan Darling, a junior secondary English education major.
Winner Van Schaick found out about the photo contest through her sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon.
“It feels so great to be the winner — I was so excited when I found out I won, I screamed to my roommate across our dorm and she was so happy for me,” said Van Schaick.
Van Schaick’s entries consisted of two photos, both of her in a face mask: one of her appearing to take notes near Mako Hall and the other with her doing the NSU signature ‘fins up’ pose.
Her caption read, “Returning back to school is easy when the weather is this nice.”
Student media plans to host other photo contests in the future, allowing for more students to participate and have an opportunity to win prizes. However, as of now, there is no information about future contests. For more information on this recent photo contest and its participants, check #ReturnOfTheSharksPhotoContest on Instagram.
