By Kira Logan
Inspiration filled the room last week as the winners of the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts Division’s Give Day Creativity Contest received awards for their original work.
One of three judges for the Creativity Contest, UCSB Theater alum Ruffy Landayan, told those gathered that creativity is what guided his judging process.
“I was really inspired by everyone’s work and it inspired me to get creative as well,” said Landayan, who went on to work as an actor and health educator after graduating in 2000. Also on the jury were donors Doug Fogelson and Laurie Greene.
Winners of UCSB’s annual Creativity Contest pictured with Ellen O’Connell Whittet of the Writing Program and Ruffy Landayan, a Theater alumnus. Award winning entries will be published on the HFA website later this month.
Ellen O’Connell Whittet, left, of UCSB’s Writing Program and Theater alum Ruffy Landayan address the student winners of the Give Day Creativity Contest, on behalf of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.
HFA’s Creativity Contest, pegged to UCSB Give Day, began seven years ago as a project of the HFA student intern team. There were several categories for students across campus to enter, including video (theater and film), photography, music, visual art, prose and poetry.
There were 30 entries in the competition this year and 14 winners this year, including runners up.
The ceremony was held in the Mosher Alumni House in conjunction with Give Day, a 36-hour fundraising event to celebrate the generosity and contributions of the UCSB community. Nearly $6.7 million was raised by 3,700 donors last week and $10,000 was raised specifically for the Humanities and Fine Arts Division.
Ellen O’Connell Whittet, a Continuing Lecturer in UCSB’s Writing Program, introduced the contest and announced the awards while Landayan presented the awards to each winner.
“I feel so lucky to be here celebrating all of the winners.” Whittet said. “All of the judges are incredibly talented and I feel honored to be presenting today.”
All of the Creativity Contest winners were greeted with sandwiches, cookies and refreshments as as well as a ‘Give Day 2025’ T-shirt as a keepsake.
Oliver Thacher, a third year student majoring in Film and Media Studies, won third place in the photography section of UCSB HFA’s Creativity Contest.
A poem about the power of imagination titled “A Creative Void of Form” by Benjamin Epstein won first place for poetry. Epstein is a second year Writing and Literature Major in the College of Creative Studies. The prose entry that won first place is a recipe for Pozole Rojo written by Maya Kapoor, interspersed with excerpts about love and family. Kapoor is graduating this spring in the Honors Sociology Practicum.
Adrianna Rajewska, a second year Environmental Studies and Art double major, won first place for photography with image titled Aura, a photo of a woman’s head, with hues of whites, purples and blues illuminating her face.
Each winner will have their work published on the HFA website and social media pages later in the month.
“I want to say [to all the winners], keep going. The submissions were really diverse and amazing to read – I read some of the submissions over four times, they were all really cool,” Landayan said.
Kira Logan is a third year English major at UC Santa Barbara and a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.