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Photo Collaboration Project

Calling all CTC creatives! Let's uncover the wonders of CTC through your lens! Enter by June 1 for a chance to win a $25 gift card!

We invite you to be a part of a unique and exciting project that aims to capture the essence of our beloved CTC neighborhood through the lens of our diverse community. No matter your age or skill level, we encourage everyone to participate and submit your photo/s by June 1, 2024, to be entered into a drawing, awarding one prize-winner!

Photo Collaboration Project Details

Theme and Objective
How to Participate:
Submission Deadline: November 5, 2023

Submit Photos Here
Share your photos online by tagging @umnsusted and @umnctc!

Grand Prize

Aside from the chance to showcase your talent and love for our community, there will be $25 Target gift card for one winner, selected at random.


Curiosity, Wonder, and  Awe: Capturing and Celebrating Moments Small and Large Photo Collaboration 

CTC is teaming up with the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota to enhance opportunities for interconnectedness and community by cultivating and supporting sense making, awe, community, and balance in the ways we experience the natural and human designed world. Consider participating in our photo collaboration project, which will include a monthly event at the Community Center grounding us in the lens of the month and culminating in an event in June that celebrates the collection of our moments of connection and reflection. 

Meaning making occurs when we slow down and mindfully connect to the world around us. Awe is “the feeling we get in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world” and it can also be found in the small moments of everyday life. Connecting to these moments large and small benefit us with clearer thinking, good health, and closer relationships. Join us in periodically sharing those moments of awe and curiosity which can include an aphid perched on a leaf, morning light passing through the leaves of a gorgeous plant, or a cloud formation that allows you to pause and see the world as it exists, outside the stressors and pressure of a hurried day, even for just a moment. Join us in finding the awe in the everyday. Watch the linked video to learn more about why awe is such an important emotion and the ways it can be beneficial to your well being. 

How to participate:
  1. Slow down, notice, and connect to the world around you. Perhaps choose a “sit spot” or a place at CTC that you can return to throughout the seasons and notice the changes, small and large around you.
  2. Tag your photos @umnsusted and @umnctc and submit them to CTC.
  3. Check out the photos on this page for possible inspiration.
  4. If you have further questions, please reach out to Meg Earnest, Program Manager for Graduate Student Leadership Development.
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest, Ponderosa Pine Bark, Sisters, Oregon
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest / Ponderosa Pine Bark, Sisters, Oregon 
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest, Tree Frog, Lake Maria State Park
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest  / Tree Frog, Lake Maria State Park
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest, Discernment Spot, Hidden Falls Regional Park
Photo Credit: Meg Earnest / Discernment Spot, Hidden Falls Regional Park 

Optional Additional Theme: Crosscutting Concepts

Want an extra challenge, or looking for inspiration? Consider integrating Crosscutting Concepts, helping to recognize and identify them in your daily life at CTC:

  1. Patterns
  2. Cause and Effect
  3. Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
  4. Systems and System Models
  5. Energy and Matter
  6. Structure and Function
  7. Stability and Change

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) include 7 Crosscutting Concepts that are the big ideas that connect the sciences and help to understand nature.


Examples of Previous Submissions

For some inspiration, we've included some randomly selected examples of resident submissions from previous, similar initiatives. We strive to continually building and diversifying our portfolio of our residents' beautiful captures of our co-op and community  - and especially look forward to seeing your depiction!

Previous submissions for example

Previous submissions for example

  Submit Photo/Artwork Here  
Share your photos online by tagging @umnsusted and @umnctc!