UCLA Student Is Repeat Winner in Photo Contest

UCLA graphic design student Shawn Elder for the second year in a row has captured first place in the amateur black-and-white category of the Century Plaza Towers Photo Contest.

Elder, 21, was pleased with his second win. “The contest wasn’t so hard the first time,” he said, “but the second time around, I was worried that I hadn’t progressed with my work.”

He said he started taking photographs in high school, “although I never really learned the basics.”

Elder’s winning entry was a photograph of a circular sculpture. “The photo was completely unplanned, and I had tried a lot of options with the trees” he said. “Finally, I just shot it alone.”

For the last year and a half, Elder has worked as a staff photographer for the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper, and is also the senior lab technician for the newspaper’s darkroom. “I like being in the darkroom because I enjoy working on my printing,” he said.

A five-member panel of business executives, marketing specialists and professional photographers judged the nearly 250 black-and-white photographs and color slides entered by amateur photographers throughout the Los Angeles area.

“Participation this year was tremendous,” said contest coordinator Patty Brewer. “It represents the greatest number of entries, by far, in the event’s three-year history.”

Upon graduation next year, Elder hopes to combine photography and graphic design in the advertising field.

Michael Diamond of Los Angeles has been selected as the first Grant Thornton Fellow at the USC School of Business Administration’s school of accounting.

Diamond has been a member of the USC faculty since 1985. He was named dean of the school of accounting in 1989. He received the 1989 Faculty Merit Award from the California Society of CPAs. His research interests include international accounting and accounting for emerging business.

Linda Burnes Bolton, director of nursing research and development at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, has been appointed to a two-year term on the National Advisory Council for Health Care Policy Research and Evaluation. She is a resident of Beverly Hills.

Anders Martinson, a senior at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, has won the Esperia Foundation’s Young Artists Competition. Anders received a $5,000 prize and the chance to perform with the Santa Barbara Symphony during the 1991 season.

Dr. William Hardy has been elected to the board of directors of AIDS Project Los Angeles.

Hardy, an expert in AIDS research, has served as director of the Infections/Disease Immunology Clinic at UCLA Medical Center since 1987.

He is the president and co-founder of the Los Angeles AIDS Forum and chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the West Hollywood Early Intervention Clinic of Los Angeles County.

Thirteen Santa Monica High School seniors have been admitted to UCLA’s honor program for high school scholars. The students will earn college credit for studying college-level math, physics and psychology, in addition to other academic courses.

The students are Seth Abelson, Craig Arcella, Robert Baloh, Sarah Braun, Katherine DeLand, Adam Diamond, Adrienne Ditchey, Ali Enayati, Greg Greenberg, Golarech Hamid, Omid Hamid, Jesse Rothstein and Janet Yu.