Kelsey Gramza of West Falls, New York has been chosen as the 2017 Janie Moore Greene Grant recipient. She is in her sophomore year at University at Buffalo and is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in photography. University at Buffalo is in Buffalo, New York.
Gramza’s career goals are to go on to graduate school and become a photography professor at a university. She currently runs a photography club at University at Buffalo.
Gramza shared what has led up to her studying photography which started when she was eight years old and picked up a camera for the first time. Her father commended her on her first photographs and she hasn’t looked back since. In 2013, she was awarded a NANPA High School Scholarship Program scholarship which allowed her to attend NANPA’s 2013 Nature Photography Summit and Trade Show in Jacksonville, Florida. Gramza described that experience as “one of the most inspiring weeks of my life. I learned more from that experience than I ever had about photography and I connected with so many others in my group. To this day, I still keep in contact with and watch those in the program with me grow in their photography.”
The Janie Moore Greene Grant is a $1,000 award given annually by the NANPA Foundation through the generosity of Janie Moore Greene to a student currently enrolled in, or who has been accepted to, an institution of higher education specializing in the study of photography.
Applications for the 2018 award will be accepted beginning in late summer. For more information and updates, visit the NANPA Foundation website.