Every year I encourage my art/photography students to participate in the Chapman University Holocaust Art Contest. A student listens to a testimony from a survivor and then recreates the Holocaust survivor’s story in a visual/artistic interpretation. The students get to meet the survivors on the day of the ceremony. A young person who meets a Holocaust survivor is forever changed by that encounter.
A phone call from the Chapman Rogers Holocaust Center to inform me that one of my students is a finalist in this year’s competition made me remember that I had forgotten to post about Bri Ireland. Bri is now a freshman at Chapman University. She is immersed in all the wonder of college life, but before she began this journey she was a high school senior. Bri was a young girl counting down her days left in high school and looking to the future of higher education. These are the photos taken in June of Bri’s senior year.
College for me was one of the most exciting times of my life. I loved the smell of old books, the shuffling of papers and the late nights cramming for a test. I loved learning! I loved testing my own knowledge and expanding my view of the world.
Although I went to Pepperdine for my university years, I still got that same rush of excitement when I walked onto Chapman’s campus for this photo shoot.
Chapman opened its doors in 1861 on the same day Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for his first term. 
In 2004 Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library opens on the fourth floor of the Leatherby Libraries. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, author and Holocaust survivor, speaks at the dedication ceremony.
2008 Chapman moves into the elite Top Ten in its category in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”
Chapman University’s main campus displays the second largest piece of the Berlin Wall owned by an American university.
Bri you have such an amazing future ahead. Enjoy ever minute of your college years. Thank you for inspiring such an amazing photoshoot.
My three little men gaze on the Berlin Wall. What paths will they walk? Where will they go for college? May they walk in freedom.