Finding the top photo

For Prof. Robert Thorson's geology class, 13 students gathered on Horsebarn Hill with an assignment to locate its top. As white clouds streaked the vibrant blue sky above the scattered group of students, Sarah Morton, CLAS '11, saw the perfect opportunity to capture the scene for her yearbook photo assignment.

The picture won a photo contest and will be displayed in this year's UConn Nutmeg as the opening page.

Morton, who double majors in journalism and geophysics and minors in geography, is finding many creative ways to draw attention to her fascination with seismology, the study of earthquakes.

She recalled how in the seventh grade in Oxford, Conn., she received honorable mention for a project she did on the formation of crystals. While in high school she took a physics class that sparked her interest in seismology.

“I have a really weird interest in earthquakes and how they affect the earth and people around it,” Morton said.

As for journalism, Morton has experience writing for her hometown newspaper and also working for her high school yearbook.

“I do know that I want to write about what I study,” Morton said. “I want to make other people aware of cases (earthquakes) where schools have collapsed and children have died.”

On campus Morton currently works as a sports editor for the Nutmeg .

“I never used to like football until I became sports editor,” Morton said with a laugh. “But my favorite photo subjects are people because I love their expressions and their emotions. You'd think I'd be an HDFS major!”

With the recent budget cuts, Morton worries that the Nutmeg might shut down.

“I might not even have a yearbook my senior year. I hope that won't be the case.”

Students must pay a $3 fee per semester in order to produce the yearbooks that seniors receive at the end of the year.

The Nutmeg requested a fee increase at the beginning of spring semester but was denied it. It has estimated that the money it currently has may last until 2013.

“It's expensive to make a yearbook even though people on campus don't even know that there is a yearbook.” Morton said. – Eunice Omega, CLAS ‘10