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Portland State supports hundreds of students each year as they study other cultures and places through the Education Abroad program. Students spend from two weeks to a year in 41 countries, and many chronicle their stay in photographs. That is why the Education Abroad office started sponsoring a photo contest three years ago. On these pages are a few of the winners selected by students, including the top three photographs by Noel Kochanasz, Nancy Ferber, and Glade Norman.

Noel Kochanasz, a senior, was enrolled in an architecture program in Barcelona, Spain, but his first-place photo is from Rome. Kochanasz says he valued "the experience of living my life in new cities with unique people who have rich senses of their culture and history."

Glade Norman lived in a dorm on the campus of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. He considers himself a "fairly laid-back individual," so Japanese etiquette was difficult for him, but the beautiful surroundings more than made up for it.

Nancy Ferber, a senior, was in Panajachel, Guatemala, close to the rural communities where she volunteered in classrooms and for local civic projects. Now that she is back, Ferber says she misses "the language, the natural beauty, and the people. Even little stuff like seeing the same people on our way to school every morning."

Lindsey Franger wishes her Japanese language skills were better while studying in Hokkaido, Japan. Still, she talked "with people from all over the world every day. I learned so much about different walks of life and different people."

Rachel Goff, who was in Oviedo, Spain, is now a senior working in the Education Abroad office. Spanairds are her kind of people. "Not only do the youth stay up until the wee hours of the morning, but so do small children and their elders. I should have been born and raised in Spain."

Mary Jane Dunne, now a junior majoring in liberal studies, lived in Prague, Czech Republic. She quickly discovered that Americans and Europeans greet each other differently. "I went in for a hug, she went in for a kiss on the cheek. I ended up kissing her on the mouth. I didn't make that mistake again."