Snapshots of Service: Caught in the Act of Kindness

Contributing can have a major impact on your mental health. Doing acts of kindness can enrich your life, improve your everyday moments, and enhance your self-respect. Service refocuses your attention from yourself to what you can do for others. Contribute to someone; volunteer your time; make something nice for someone else; do a surprising, thoughtful thing, and don't forget to bring your camera!

The Student Wellness Team invited students to submit digital photos representing images that capture acts of kindness, service, contribution and volunteerism and their impact on healing, along with a description of the picture. Prizes will be awarded for the pictures that address this topic in the most evocative and thought-provoking manner.

Prizes

1st Place: $250
2nd Place: $100
3rd Place: $50

And the Winners Are...

Judge's Votes
1st Place - Swetadri Vasan Setlur Nagesh, Electrical Engineering Graduate Student "Nanette Martin an international award winning photographer from Shelter-Me Photography Inc, a nonprofit organization, has helped many shelter animals by professionally photographing them at no cost and thus changing the way people see them and expedite their adoptions into a forever home. The dog in this picture was rescued from a breeding home, and having spent all her life there she was agitated to see many people in the room. So Nanette is trying to calm the dog before photographing her for adoptions. Nanette Martin, using her gift to bring out a positive change in the little dog's life."
2nd Place - Sara Oliphant, Junior Economics Major My neighborhood is filled with farms that have been passed down through generations. During a brutal summer with little rainfall, our crops were pitiful, the field was parched. An electrical storm left our field ransacked with flame. As quickly as the fire spread, our neighbors came to aid. The destruction was spreading too quickly to wait for the fire department. This photo captures community members helping to combat, carrying heavy loads of water and using shovels to smother the flames. All of the farms faced hardship that summer, but this experience reminded us to find solace in each other.
3rd Place - Catharine Grainge, Sophomore Philosophy and Spanish Major On a busy street in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jake kindly helps an elderly woman cross to the other side. Today, Jake as well as a few other students from the United States, served breakfast and tea to this woman and many others like her. These women and their children are hoping to enter the prison where their sons, husbands, fathers, and boyfriends are being held. During the 3-5 hours that they would normally be standing outside in line, Jake and his friends have opened a small cafe just across the street where the women can rest until their turn to enter the prison.

Judge's Votes

1st Place - Swetadri Vasan Setlur Nagesh, Electrical Engineering Graduate Student

"Nanette Martin an international award winning photographer from Shelter-Me Photography Inc, a nonprofit organization, has helped many shelter animals by professionally photographing them at no cost and thus changing the way people see them and expedite their adoptions into a forever home. The dog in this picture was rescued from a breeding home, and having spent all her life there she was agitated to see many people in the room. So Nanette is trying to calm the dog before photographing her for adoptions. Nanette Martin, using her gift to bring out a positive change in the little dog's life."

2nd Place - Sara Oliphant, Junior Economics Major

My neighborhood is filled with farms that have been passed down through generations. During a brutal summer with little rainfall, our crops were pitiful, the field was parched. An electrical storm left our field ransacked with flame. As quickly as the fire spread, our neighbors came to aid. The destruction was spreading too quickly to wait for the fire department. This photo captures community members helping to combat, carrying heavy loads of water and using shovels to smother the flames. All of the farms faced hardship that summer, but this experience reminded us to find solace in each other.

3rd Place - Catharine Grainge, Sophomore Philosophy and Spanish Major

On a busy street in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jake kindly helps an elderly woman cross to the other side. Today, Jake as well as a few other students from the United States, served breakfast and tea to this woman and many others like her. These women and their children are hoping to enter the prison where their sons, husbands, fathers, and boyfriends are being held. During the 3-5 hours that they would normally be standing outside in line, Jake and his friends have opened a small cafe just across the street where the women can rest until their turn to enter the prison.

People's Choice Votes
1st Place People's Choice - Jovn Panthapattu, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharm. D. Candidate), Graduate Student Last January, students from the UB School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences engaged themselves in medical volunteerism abroad in the Dominican Republic. This collage represents some aspects of a "free clinic" day conducted in a poverty stricken community of San Pedro de Macoris. Students assisted with triaging the patients, learned how to compound simple suspensions, filled prescriptions written by local doctors, and counseled patients about the use of their medications in the Spanish language.
2nd Place People's Choice - Mallorey Himmel, Pre-Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Undergraduate Student My Spring Break was a trip to teach children English in the Dominican Republic. Every morning we went to the pier, watched the sun rise, and talked with some local kids. Together we did yoga and exchanged stories. Though I came as a volunteer I quickly realized that it really was not about me. Overwhelmed with a feeling of love and acceptance, these people served me in a way that I could never have served them. This trip was immeasurably fulfilling because as I was serving someone else, my life was being enriched in an unforgettable, priceless, and magical way.
3rd Place People's Choice - Mahisha Naidu, College of Arts and Sciences - Psychology, Undergraduate Student Service, to me, is about the little things. People often do not realize that they may be performing acts of kindness every single day and it isn't always about flying a thousand miles away to feed the hungry in Africa, or serve the homeless in Indonesia. Additionally, these acts do not always have to help 'people'. To me, a gardener, who loves his plants and waters them unconditionally, is performing an act of kindness just as great as someone who is feeding the hungry. Today, this picture of me feeding wild birds at a temple, symbolizes the fact that: It's the little things that matter- they will never fail to make you smile! :)

People's Choice Votes

1st Place People's Choice - Jovn Panthapattu, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharm. D. Candidate), Graduate Student

Last January, students from the UB School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences engaged themselves in medical volunteerism abroad in the Dominican Republic. This collage represents some aspects of a "free clinic" day conducted in a poverty stricken community of San Pedro de Macoris. Students assisted with triaging the patients, learned how to compound simple suspensions, filled prescriptions written by local doctors, and counseled patients about the use of their medications in the Spanish language.

2nd Place People's Choice - Mallorey Himmel, Pre-Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Undergraduate Student

My Spring Break was a trip to teach children English in the Dominican Republic. Every morning we went to the pier, watched the sun rise, and talked with some local kids. Together we did yoga and exchanged stories. Though I came as a volunteer I quickly realized that it really was not about me. Overwhelmed with a feeling of love and acceptance, these people served me in a way that I could never have served them. This trip was immeasurably fulfilling because as I was serving someone else, my life was being enriched in an unforgettable, priceless, and magical way.

3rd Place People's Choice - Mahisha Naidu, College of Arts and Sciences - Psychology, Undergraduate Student

Service, to me, is about the little things. People often do not realize that they may be performing acts of kindness every single day and it isn't always about flying a thousand miles away to feed the hungry in Africa, or serve the homeless in Indonesia. Additionally, these acts do not always have to help 'people'. To me, a gardener, who loves his plants and waters them unconditionally, is performing an act of kindness just as great as someone who is feeding the hungry. Today, this picture of me feeding wild birds at a temple, symbolizes the fact that: It's the little things that matter- they will never fail to make you smile! :)