Jamie Russell, NY

Jamie Russell’s gritty black-and-white images of a bleak city landscape including a crumbling church, a closed railway terminal, and a homeless man, are the kinds of images she’d like to capture someday as a professional photojournalist.

The 17-year-old from Cheektowaga, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, was chosen by Sigma Corporation of America executives as the winner of Sigma’s first-ever Scholarship Contest, which includes a cash prize of $5,000 and a $1,000 gift card toward Sigma products.

She has a passion for photography and a budding interest in journalism – telling a persuasive and compelling story through images The photographs she submitted to the Sigma Scholarship depict the dilapidated Buffalo Central Terminal, a homeless man standing outside the city mission, and a run-down church.

Jamie will attend Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she’d like to focus her career on raising awareness around poverty. “During my time at Point Park, I plan to not only excel in the photography program, but to gain a vast amount of knowledge about other cultures,” Jamie says. “I believe that if everyone has a general understanding of cultures other than their own, people will be more tolerant to one another. This belief is the reason why it is important for me to travel the world and show people both the best and worst of other cultures.”

She would also like to spend one semester traveling globally and “capture the essence of other cultures and poverty ridden cities in photographs.”

“I am convinced that this will be one of the most beneficial life experiences I will have. I will be able to see the world through the lens of my camera while continuing my studies,” Jamie says.