Incoming MIA student Paul Hersh sent along the following photos for posting.  Enjoy.

“Vietnam – Ha Long Bay” – A lonely fisherman in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

“Syria – Aleppo – Umayyad Mosque” – Inside the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, Syria.

“Cambodia – Phnom Penh – Tuol Sleng” – Building A of Tuol Sleng, with large cells in which the bodies of the last victims were discovered. The photos on the wall are how the rooms were found, with the mutilated body of a prisoner chained to the bed, killed by his fleeing captors only hours before the prison was captured.  Tuol Sleng, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979.

My name is Ana Berenguer, an incoming MPA student, and I would like to share some pictures with you:

I took these two pictures in December 2010 at one of the student contests organized by the Foundation that I manage. The student with the highest score of a multiple choice exam on History represents their school in the second phase of the Spanish Heritage History Bee, consisting of an oral examination with a panel of judges responsible for asking the oral questions until a winner is selected.  We prepared amazing awards such as an airline ticket to take a class on Spanish culture in Salamanca (Spain) during the summer of 2011….You may understand now the happiness of Miranda, the winner of Elementary, and the big nervous of Santino.

This is a great phone pic of Miami way of life: my little boy at the pool the day he turned 5 months, only a few days ago.

I would say the best thing about Miami is its great location: only 2 hours and ½ flight far from great places such as Chicago, Mexico, Colombia…and 5 hours to one of my long dreamed trips: Peru. I took this picture at Matchu Pichu on November 2009, after 5 hard days of Inca Trail. Get away from my camera you curious llama!

The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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Ramón Peña-Franco (Incoming MPA)

The first picture was taken during a trip to southern Mexico in the spring of 2009, near the border with Guatemala and Belize.   This is the symbol and a small group of supporters of  the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), a revolutionary leftist movement based in Chiapas, the southernmost State of Mexico. Since 1994, the group has been in a declared war “against the Mexican state,” though this war has lost strength through the years. Their social base is mostly rural indigenous people, like the ones shown in this photo.

I built a company along with some American businessmen that invests in agricultural projects across US-Mexico border to develop organic production and other agroindustrial activities. This photo was taken during a business trip to a Northern State in Mexico in the summer of 2010. One of our workers is driving a tractor and putting a plastic on the land where other workers would start the planting process afterwards.

In the summer of 2009 I made a trip along the Pacific coast of Michoacán, a Western State of Mexico, and I found several wild beaches that are visited by a very small group of people. I was amazed by the  beauty of the place and felt fortunate to enjoy such a wonderful scenery before it is filled with hotels and massive tourism projects.

The new student photo series continues again today.  If you have sent photos, thank you and we will work on posting.  If  you have yet to send photos see this entry for details.

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My name is Helene Roy, I am an incoming MIA student.  I would like to share with you some of the numerous pictures I took during a backpacking trip I did in Chile in summer 2008.

The first two pictures where taken in the Salar de Atacama, the largest salt desert in Chile, located 50 km  south of the small town of San Pedro de Atacama (Antofagasta Region).  The last picture was taken on the road to San Pedro de Atacam, in Chuquicamata, a city known for its gigantic open-pit copper mine.

Laguna Miscanti – A brackish water lake located in the high plain of the Salar de Atacama.  One of the most beautiful scenery in the area.

Chaxa Lagoon, Salar de Atacama – The Chaxa Lagoon provides habitat for various bird species, among which are those beautiful Chilean and Andean Flamingos.

Chuquicamata open pit copper mine – In the north of Chile, this copper mine is the second deepest open-pit mine in the world (after  Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, US)