Jepson Study Abroad Photo Contest

Emily Morse, ’15, saw leadership in action when she was studying abroad in Argentina last fall. Where she saw it surprised her.

Morse knew she was beginning to see the world through the lens of leadership studies when she visited an island that was a penguin habitat and recognized leadership behavior in the endangered birds.   

“One penguin was breaking away from the crowd and caught my attention,” she says. “Maybe it was going to catch food for the group. The rest of the group was resting safely on the shore, but that penguin was doing something different. The penguin was displaying strong leader qualities.”

Morse snapped a photo and submitted it for the Jepson Study Abroad Photo Contest. It was the winning entry for the contest, which is in its fifth year. Her entry was unveiled at a reception in January held for students returning from study abroad. Morse’s framed photo will permanently hang in the International Photo Gallery in Jepson Hall.   

She titled it “Testing the Water at World’s End” because it was taken in Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city.  

“I really wanted to see penguins when I was in Argentina. I went with friends and we left our hostel early one morning and drove six hours across mountains and through rivers. Then we got on a boat. It really seemed like we were at the end of the world when we got there,” she laughs.

A Holt Scholarship helped make the experience possible and gave her an opportunity to take a class on leadership and management in NGOs, says Morse, a leadership studies major and triple minor in Latin American and Iberian Studies, sociology, and education and society.

“I originally thought I wanted to go to Europe even though I had studied there the summer before,” says Morse. “But I’m glad I decided to be immersed in a different culture. After college, I definitely know I want to do something international.”