1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityCommunity members formed a line by the American Red Cross trucks parked near Lippitt Memorial Park following a vigil after a mass shooting at Brown University left 2 dead and 9 injured the day prior on Sunday, Dec.14, 2025. The trucks offered hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and warm blankets, as vigil goers stood out in the cold.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityDana Ricker, head capo of the Dirigo Union, leads Portland Hearts of Pine fans as they gesture in unison while setting off smoke during the team’s game against the Halifax Wanderers begins at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Aug. 6, 2025. The match was the Hearts of Pine’s first international friendly.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityPaula Ward, a 71-year-old South Boston resident enrolled in the Mass General Brigham Home Hospital program, has her breathing checked by Charlie Carey, a mobile integrated healthcare paramedic at MGB, while seated inside her living room on Sept. 18, 2025.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityOnlookers at the U.S. Army's 250th Anniversary Military Parade record military helicopters as they pass by the Washington Monument on June 14, 2025. The parade's date coincided with President Trump's 79th birthday and the nationwide "No Kings" protests against the Trump administration's policies.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityWhittier Wildcats players recited the Lord’s prayer together- between a pep-talk from their coach and the start of the Massachusetts Vocational Large School Super Bowl against the Diman Bengals at Medford High School’s Hormel Stadium. Entering this season, the team’s coach, 64-year-old Kevin Bradley, faced one of his toughest battles. Bradley, who has been with the Whittier Wildcats since 1998, learned he had tongue cancer in mid-July this year.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityProvidence city councilman John Goncalves, Senior Deputy Majority Leader for Ward 1, joined vigil-goers in mourning at Lippitt Memorial Park following a mass shooting at Brown University that left 2 dead and 9 injured the day prior on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. The event was originally planned as a Christmas tree and menorah lighting.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityFred Baker takes a look inside his butcher shop as his father brings his truck in carrying a customer’s deer in the bed. When Fred Baker fractured his spine in a motorcycle accident his first thought was how he would continue his hobbies - skiing, motorcycling, fishing at his family’s lake house, and hunting. Since then, he’s learned how to ski, get out his truck unassisted, and continue hunting. For the last few years, he’s participated in the statewide annual “parahunt” held by the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife which offers disabled hunters an opportunity to get back out into the woods.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityTim Kennedy (center) lifted Fred Baker’s hunting blind for him, so he could get into position at his designated hunting spot. Each year, staff and volunteers assist hunters with paraplegia travel and participate in the three-day special season. Baker harvested his first deer during the parahunt from the same spot four years prior. His luck — and the parahunt camaraderie — has kept him coming back. “Meeting people, getting to know everybody’s story, it builds a community,” he said.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityFred Baker took aim through the scope of his shotgun, as he prepared to fire the first shot at a deer within range, crossing the dirt road overlooked by his hunting spot on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. After hours of waiting in one place, he was lucky to encounter any deer at all.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityAfter firing two shots just before the end of hunting hours, Fred Baker made his way down the dirt road overlooked by his hunting spot to examine the button buck he targeted on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Fred “spined” the young deer with the first shell, paralyzing it. “I don’t like [killing] the little ones,” Fred said, after making the quick decision to seize what might be the only chance he had at harvesting a deer during the three-day season. It would be his only encounter with a deer for the rest of the parahunt.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityFred Baker watched as MassWildlife biologistsand his friend, Tim Kennedy (top), helped field dress his harvested button buck in the rain on a path nearby the hunting clubhouse on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Bakersaid the MassWildlife staff “do everything” for the hunters, from finding locations to helping them harvest deer. Still, he sometimes misses all the scouting work he usedto do, before getting injured.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio University“That’s a f--king horse,” said Tim Kennedy, friend and business partner to Fred Baker, (from left) as the two took a moment to smoke a cigarette each and admire the size of a buck brought in by a customer to their butcher shop on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. The two, now housemates, run their small business right by Fred’s home.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityMaria Baker (left) sampled some of her son Fred Baker’s pulled venison hip roast during a lunch and Patriots game watch party at his home on Nov. 23, 2025. Fred joked about his mother’s reaction as she tried his home-cooking, even as she admitted that she enjoyed the dish. The venison eaten by the Bakers that afternoon was cut from the same buck Fred harvested during the parahunt.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityDiscarded parts from a deer skinned by Fred Baker’s friend and business partner, Tim Kennedy, sit by the ramp to the pair’s butcher shop facility while Baker continues skinning the button buck he harvested three days prior in the backyard of their home. At the Camp Edwards location this year, one of five sites across Massachusetts, five hunters shot two deer over the three-day hunt.
1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityFred Baker waited for MassWildlife employees toarrive and assist him in getting to his designated hunting spot in the clubhouse parking lot the before sunrise on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. Over a decade and a halfsince his accident and Baker is still learning to live with paraplegia’s limitations. “I’ve been adapting over the years to continue doing the things I love doing,” he said,continuing to chase his hobbies with the belief that it’s all still possible, even if things might just take a little longer to get figured out.
![1st Place, Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship - Ben Pennington / Ohio UniversityAfter firing two shots just before the end of hunting hours, Fred Baker made his way down the dirt road overlooked by his hunting spot to examine the button buck he targeted on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Fred “spined” the young deer with the first shell, paralyzing it. “I don’t like [killing] the little ones,” Fred said, after making the quick decision to seize what might be the only chance he had at harvesting a deer during the three-day season. It would be his only encounter with a deer for the rest of the parahunt.](images/fullerton_pennington_10.jpg)
