More than 700 photos were contributed to The Universe's 'A Day in the Life of BYU' project, and calling out some favorites from that massive photo gallery only seemed fitting.
So Universe editors distilled their favorites into a list of their top 10 and then announced a contest, inviting students, faculty and staff to have a little fun by picking their top-10 favorites as well. The Universe offered $50 gift cards as prizes in each of several categories as part of the contest.
Kennedy Noel, a sophomore psychology major from Bountiful, takes the prize for matching the editors' picks the closest. David Taylor, a pre-communications junior from Chino, Calif., and Philip Pare, a computer science graduate student from Cambridge, Mass., tied in the contest to see whose top-10 picks most closely matched the favorites of others entering the contest. Freshman Vance Lee claims the final prize for taking the picture voted the overall favorite — an unusual shot of Alex Lyman practicing the cello in a bathroom stall in the Wilkinson Student Center.
The 'A Day in the Life of BYU' project was launched to give the entire BYU community an opportunity to interact with The Universe by being a photojournalist for a day: midnight to midnight on Nov. 9. Campus was a busy place that day, and a massive winter storm made things all the more interesting. The photos that were sent in chronicled events many on campus were a part of — like a men's basketball game against Tennessee State and a campus visit by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The project also shed some light on the myriad of little-known activities that day, like a student's trip to the emergency room to mend an arm broken playing Ultimate Frisbee, an engagement and, of course, Lyman's unusual choice of places to practice the cello.
Pictures were also sent in by BYU students on study abroad and internships far from campus: Ireland, Spain, Italy and Jordan, to name a few.
Projects like A Day in the Life are not a new concept, but The Universe's approach of hosting the project is unique, in that it allowed people not on its staff to participate. All BYU students, faculty and staff were invited to participate.
The photo project is still on display at The Universe's news website, universe.byu.edu. Universe editors are planning how and when the next 'A Day in the Life' project will be.