Meet the Winner of Momenta’s Project Portland West Award!

Salgu Wissmath

The Momenta Workshops West Award, created five years ago by Patrick West and Momenta’s founders, provides a full workshop scholarship for university students who display superb talent and dedication to being a force for change through documentary work. Patrick’s generous support, captivating images, and his inspiring philanthropic work are an excellent example for recipients of the West Award.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Salgu Wissmath to our Project Portland 2018 workshop as the recipient of the West Award. Salgu is a student at  Ohio University, and has worked on various documentary project following unique stories as well as designed a qtpoc magazine, written about a trans rabbi in Philadelphia, created an audio story about a queer ghost hunting group, and exhibited a masters project exploring what gender dysphoria feels like.

Salgu’s portfolio was incredibly impressive to all of us on the judging panel and demonstrated a strong sense of self. This was one of the most mature portfolios we have received in terms of narrative approach We all agreed they were the ideal candidate to work in Portland, and that it would be great to see what they can do in Portland with the teaching team there to guide them to a broader approach on storytelling perspective. They have been focused on storytelling, documentary, and multimedia explorations in their career so far. They are interning at the Louisville newspaper this summer and then will be looking for freelance work.

At Momenta, we strive to teach strong storytelling as an essential part of connecting with audiences and allowing the viewer to connect with the subject matter. As Salgu told us after winning the award, “I was inspired to attend this workshop because I hope to eventually enter into the field of advocacy journalism and non-profit visual storytelling.” We are inspired by Salgu’s pursuit of their professional goals.

We’re looking forward to following Salgu on what is an already exciting career path and growing to become a leading voice in our community. Look at their work and follow along on their website at www.salguwissmath.com or on Instagram @salguwissmath

Interested in applying for the West Award or any of Momenta’s other scholarship opportunities?  Click here to learn more about our scholarships.