Winners of "Faces of FLEX" Alumni Photo Contest Announced

All of this year’s entries in the “Faces of FLEX” Alumni Photo Contest explore the spirit of American holidays and traditions, and tell a more encompassing story of sharing and community service. This year's competition was held on a specially designed website, flexphotocontest.net, allowing alumni not only to comment on and rate one another's photos, but also to share their favorite pictures on the most popular social networks, Facebook and Vkontakte.

Firuza Ayubzoda '10 from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, received the ECA first place prize for her photo "How to Carve Pumpkins,"which captures active FLEX alumni sharing American traditions with orphans from the Internat #4 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

The Alumni Choice Award (51 alumni votes) went to Lilit Ghazaryan '09 from Yerevan, Armenia, for "Keeping the Spirit of American Holidays," in which she photographed Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan '04 carving "FLEX" sign on the huge pumpkin during the alumni celebration of Halloween in Yerevan, Armenia.

ECA judges awarded second place to Kristina Stepnova '10 from Sumgait, Azerbaijan, for her photo "Painting Walls in an Orphanage," which she took during a visit to the Orphanage # 1 in Surakhani to fulfill the Ramadan Donation project.

Third place went to Anna Akhmetova '10 from Pavlodar, Kazakhstan for her photo "The Spirit of Thanksgiving." Her picture introduced us to Meruert Sagindykova '10 and other FLEX alumni as they share their knowledge and enthusiasm for Thanksgiving at a rehabilitation center for children with disabilities.

Three more photos were awarded an honorable mention: Maryna Tuzhanska '10 of Vinnytsya, Ukraine took the photo "Let's Be Friends" during a visit to the dog shelter “Planeta” as part of the "Vinnytsya FLEX Alumni Dog Shelter Project"; Cristina Munteanu '10 from Soroca, Moldova, made a picture, "Carry on the Joy," with Dorina Cernatinschi '09, Ana Dragan '09 and other FLEX alumni during their visit to the local Placement Center for kids at risk "Azimut" for Halloween on October 31, 2010; Arus Sahakyan '10 from Yerevan, Armenia, recorded Shushanik Hakobyan '10 and Elen Sahradyan '10, volunteering at American Councils for the FLEX 2011 exams at the State Linguistic University, Yerevan, Armenia. His picture called "The Future Generation."

The photo links can be found at:
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com (newsletter)
http://flexphotocontest.org/winners2010(website)
http://animoto.com(slide show)