This year’s holiday greetings from the Graduate School will have a unique tie to the university, thanks to the winners of the Graduate School’s holiday card contest. The winning entry, “Holidays at McKeldin,” features a cheerful winter holiday scene on the university’s McKeldin Mall, created by collaging photos and using stamping and cutout techniques in Photoshop to give the appearance of a painting.
The piece was created by three Iranian graduate students. Sara Honarvar is finishing a master’s degree in Kinesiology; her research focuses on how the brain controls movement. Aria Shahverdi is pursuing a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering; his research is focused on cryptography. Q-mars Haeri is a third-year PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies; he intends to investigate the potential for Iranian theatre to gain worldwide attention that Iranian cinema has obtained.
This is the second year that the Graduate School has held its holiday card contest. In the contest, graduate students were asked to submit original artwork for the Graduate School holiday card that evoked some aspect of their experience as a graduate student at the University of Maryland.
