Tess Colwell is a 2003 graduate of Middletown High School. She received a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communications from Ohio University with a concentration in photojournalism in 2007. While at OU, Colwell attended the Scotland Visual Field School and interned at both The Columbus Dispatch and The Reading Eagle. She worked as a campus staff photographer for The Athens News throughout her college career. She received the prestigious Provost Undergraduate Research Grant from Ohio University to pursue an ongoing documentary project on Appalachian midwives. She was treasurer of the National Press Photographer’s Association student chapter. Since graduating, Tess has been a freelance photographer in the Washington, D.C., area and is working on a documentary project on immigrant female crab pickers on the Eastern Shore. She expects to finish a Masters of Arts degree at Hood College in 2009. This summer she will be traveling to Nigeria to document a University of Maryland medical project to help treat HIV and AIDS. You can view her portfolio at www.tesscolwell.blogspot.com.