“I’m not talking about learning just to photograph or write, but how the student can involve themselves in the mission of that organization...”

Diane Dammeyer believes in the transformative power of storytelling. After finishing a career in real estate on Chicago’s North Shore, she enrolled at Columbia College Chicago to develop her skills in photography, unsure precisely where they’d take her.

She now describes herself as a “philanthropic photographer,” capturing images of children and young adults and their economic circumstances around the world.

“I’m trying to give a voice to individuals who don’t have the opportunity to tell their stories,” Dammeyer says.

After leaving Columbia in the late 1990s, Dammeyer went to work as a volunteer documentary photographer with the Chicagobased Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. She began traveling all over the world recording images of children in impoverished, war-torn settings like Rwanda, Uganda, and Guatemala.

A longtime supporter of educational causes with her husband, Rod, Dammeyer says her work at Heartland inspired the creation of a new Columbia annual scholarship program. The scholarship will make its first award in 2012.

The Diane Dammeyer Scholarship will award a Columbia freshman with full tuition, as well as room and board, for the last three years of their undergraduate education.

In exchange, the winning student will use their primary artistic or communication skill—journalism, creative writing, photography, film, design, or fine arts—to support at least one Chicago-area community nonprofit or nongovernmental organization (NGO) through graduation. The scholarship will be awarded every three years afterward.

Dammeyer wants winning students to become active participants in the work of their chosen organizations−not just reporters or observers.

“The idea here is to find students during their freshman year who want to tell the story of an NGO through photography, film, journalism, or other communications discipline to explain their social mission to a wider audience,” Dammeyer says. “I’m not talking about learning just to photograph or write, but how the student can involve themselves in the mission of that organization through their medium.”

Dammeyer, who lives in southern California, believes the scholarship won’t be a hard sell to organizations where recipients want to volunteer their time.

“I think these NGOs would want to make themselves known to Columbia students. They can benefit from this,” Dammeyer says. “At Heartland, I wanted to give time, passion, and work. I never took money, and I had a lot of work published in their newsletters and magazines. That will happen for the students in this program, so the student’s work will get exposure while the organization gets all this talent without a high cost,” she says. “It’s a win-win.”

—Lisa Holton