Rodrigo Palma Becomes the First Recipient of the Amy K. Covey Memorial Scholarship in 2009
From L to R: BI President Dr. Roger Andersen, Amy K. Covey Memorial Scholarship Recipient Rodrigo Palma, BI Professional Photography Program Director Scott Miles. Photo Credit: Nina Gomez
Amy Covey was a passionate photographer dedicated to pursuing her degree in photography. Sadly, her time ran out before her dream was fulfilled. The Amy K. Covey Memorial Scholarship Fund was established so that Amy could live on to help Brooks Institute students realize their dream of becoming a photographer. This is an annual scholarship given to a student who demonstrates excellence in photography and community service. This student is selected from the students who have met the highest academic standards at Brooks Institute, received the “First Year Award,” and demonstrated outstanding community service.
This year, Rodrigo Palma was selected to receive this honor. Rodrigo has demonstrated distinguished performance since the beginning of his studies at Brooks Institute. An important aspect of the art of photography is one’s ability to engage with others. Mr. Palma has done an excellent job of engaging with his fellow students and the faculty and staff of the school. Many students, staff and instructors know him and all speak highly of him as a student, photographer and person of integrity. He makes it a point to interact with instructors and students to discuss interesting topics, to seek assistance in improving his work, and to assist in creating the best possible learning environment at Brooks Institute.
Rodrigo is passionate about the craft of photography and the potential for connecting with people and communicating the human condition. His photography projects show his ability to connect with others, including a picture story with his brother that was as emotionally touching as it was visually stimulating. His work shows an ability to connect with his subjects, a high level of professionalism, and an artful vision.
To help preserve the traditional craft of black & white darkroom photography, Rodrigo worked with staff and faculty members to find a way to keep the darkroom facilities open and available to interested students. Due to changing technologies, the availability of darkroom facilities was dwindling. Rodrigo organized a new structure that extended the darkroom availability and created opportunities for students to explore and master this area of the craft of photography. He was responsible for implementing basic darkroom seminars that would introduce students to the craft and allow them to continue to develop their skills through extended availability of the darkroom facilities.
Rodrigo often seeks and finds ways of reaching out to communicate about photography and his educational experiences. After participating in a fashion photography workshop in Paris, he worked with other students to organize an exhibition of all of their work in a gallery at Samy’s Camera in Santa Barbara. This provided an opportunity for all of the workshop participants to share their images and experiences with a very large number of Brooks students and area photographers. Related to these activities, he shared his images, experiences and excitement for learning with the local Univision television network through a prime-time broadcast interview.
Rodrigo works in a very professional and collaborative manner to bring about change for the benefit of all students at Brooks Institute. He is a completely engaged student who cares about learning; his professional development; and a learning environment that supports all students to help them succeed. He is always a positive contributor to the Brooks Institute community.
The faculty of the Professional Photography Program praised Rodrigo as they were selecting him to be the first recipient of the Amy Covey Scholarship. He had unanimous support due to his contributions to the greater Brooks Institute community. His friendship with Amy Covey made him an even more fitting choice for this scholarship award. The faculty is very impressed with his contributions to the school, and proud of his accomplishments. They are very thankful to the Covey family and friends for establishing this scholarship in memory of an outstanding student and amazing person, Amy Covey.
