Student Photography Exhibition Opens in Mt. Scott Hall
Posted by karah.kemmerly
Two sections of the ESOL Level 6 Academic Communication course teamed up on Monday, December 1, 2025, for a photography project that transformed a hallway in Mt. Scott Hall of the Southeast campus into a temporary art gallery.
Twenty-two students, guided by instructors Lara Mendicino and Tim Krause, spent time exploring Southeast with cellphone cameras in hand. Their assignment: slow down, look closely, and capture aspects of campus life and culture that are often overlooked in the daily rush to class and work.
Students returned with images ranging from the unusual to the unexpectedly familiar, often seen from new angles. While many students captured images of nature, others focused on art, architecture, and even the signs. Each participant selected one photograph to feature and wrote a short interpretation in English—which, for many, is a second, third, or even fourth language—before making an audio recording to explain the image’s significance.
Using HARTS funding, Mendicino and Krause produced 8×10 color prints of each photograph and generated individual QR codes linking to the students’ recordings. The finished works were installed as an exhibit along the second-floor hallway bulletin boards in Mt. Scott Hall, where they will remain on display through at least the end of Winter 2026. Publication of the exhibit was sent via email to instructors, staff, and administrators of the SE ESOL department. Several instructors have expressed interest in taking their classes to see the exhibit.
The exhibit invites the hundreds, even thousands, of visitors who pass through the building to pause, look, and listen. Hearing students describe their own images in their own voices can spark reflection and conversation not only about the art itself but also about the cultures, languages, and lived experiences that make up the PCC community.