December 12, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - A Western Kentucky University photojournalism student has received a $2,000 scholarship
from the Overseas Press Club Foundation.
Teressa Rerras, a senior from Norfolk, Va., is one of 12 scholarship recipients who will be honored Feb. 13 at a luncheon in New York. She is the first WKU student to receive the award.
“I’m so excited to win the scholarship and it’s a real morale booster for me,” she said.
The scholarship will help Rerras complete her undergraduate work in 2009 at WKU before she embarks on graduate school, probably at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
“Teressa is an incredibly deserving recipient who writes eloquently about the people and countries she photographs,” said Amy Eckhardt, director of WKU’s Office of Scholar Development. “The Overseas Press Club of America award is validation in a national arena of her native talent as a photographer and storyteller. Her success is shared by all of us and speaks to the quality of WKU’s photojournalism program and the dedicated mentoring of its faculty.”
For the past several years, Rerras has been telling the stories of women and children in war-torn countries, especially the women of Afghanistan who are suffering under the oppression of Taliban rule.
An airline employee for nearly 25 years, Rerras estimates she traveled to 42 countries. When she visited major cities around the globe, Rerras would take her camera and look for interesting photographic subjects.
“The farther off the beaten path I went I found more compelling stories,” she said. “I want to tell their stories and I want people to see what is going on around the world.”
From 2002 to 2005, she served as a travel correspondent for World Trade Press and visited locations in Afghanistan, Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2005, Rerras decided she needed formal training and entered WKU’s award-winning photojournalism program. She has spent much of the past four years commuting from her home in Norfolk, Va., to Bowling Green.
“My husband (Speros) has been incredible,” Rerras said. “He knows this is my passion and my gift. I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family.” Rerras has two sons, Jason and Benjamin.
In addition to documenting the stories of women and children, Rerras founded and directs The Learning Through Photography Foundation in Norfolk to teach literacy through photography to children from war-torn countries.
On her trips to Afghanistan, Rerras also has taught photography in schools there “mainly to build their self-esteem and give them hope and encouragement.”
Through the foundation, she hopes to develop scholarships for girls in the war-torn nations to continue their educations.
“I just want to make a difference and touch someone’s life,” said Rerras, who also works as a freelance photographer for The Virginian-Pilot. “I want to empower them.”
A journal with photographs from her March 2008 visit to Afghanistan is available on the Women’s Studies program’s website at http://www.wku.edu/Dept/Academic/Graduate/WStudy/studentprojects/teressa.rerras.htm
More information about the Overseas Press Club Foundation is available online at http://www.overseaspressclubfoundation.org/ and http://www.opcofamerica.org/2008022933/about/the-overseas-press-club-foundation.html
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Teressa Rerras at (757) 237-2736.
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