NYITCOM Reveals the Winners of Through the Lens

Three students took home first, second, and third place in NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Through the Lens initiative. For the first time, participants could submit photos in a double-themed category: Mentoring Moments and/or Reaching Beyond Boundaries. The winners were announced on January 25 at the Old Westbury campus.

Priya Patel, a first year osteopathic medical student, took first place for her photo “Up, Up and Away” (see photo above). Patel related her photograph to this year’s theme saying, “The sky is the limit.”

Coming in second is Shreena Desai, a second year medical student. Desai took her photo, “End of the Rainbow,” at the top of the Andes mountains while on vacation in Peru. “Only those who risk going too far will ever really know how far they can go,” she said.

In third place was Samantha Conner, a first year osteopathic medical student and the first winner from NYITCOM at Arkansas State University. Her photo, “A Promise of Tomorrow” illustrates hope. “No matter how tough things get, the sun sets with the promise of tomorrow and the promise of new hope,” she said. Connor also said she was inspired by a quote from Maya Angelou: “No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.”

The Through the Lens initiative enables NYITCOM’s students and faculty and staff members to show off their creative sides. It aims to empower and invite members of the community to visualize, memorialize, and document what surrounds them and to connect with the school in a creative manner.