1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Providence, RI - 12/14/2025: Community 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Boston, MA- 7/7/25- Students stand against the wall during practice at Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts on Monday, July 7, 2025, in Boston. Mayor Michelle Wu visited the MMA studio, hosting a summer learning program, after the Trump administration announced the withholding of over 100 million dollars in federal funding. Because the city pays for summer programs, they will be largely unaffected by the federal withholding of funds.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Portland, ME - 8/6/25- Dana 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Boston, MA- 9/18/25- Paula 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Quincy, MA - 11/20/2025: A caregiver holds a sea turtle’s head in an exam room at the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital on Thursday, Nov. 20, in Quincy. The aquarium is treating over 200 cold-stunned hypothermic sea turtles that have washed ashore on Massachusetts beaches as temperatures have dropped.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Boston, MA- 8/5/2025- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey welcomes Texas State Sen. César Blanco prior to a press conference at the Massachusetts State House on Aug. 5, 2025. Healey hosted several Democratic Texas state legislators who had left their home state to block the vote of proposed redistricting maps that would likely create five more Republican-leaning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Texan legislators faced threats of potential arrest and removal from office by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott if they did not return to Austin to pass the new maps, in addition to a $500-per-day fine for each day of broken quorum. "It’s outrageous, and it impacts all of us across this country," Healey said, stepping into a national, partisan debate. "All Americans are going to be impacted by what the next Congress looks like."
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Salem, MA- 10/2/25- Jordan Kimkaran, of Salem, dressed as Jesus, uses his phone while standing at the intersection between Essex St. and Derby Sq. before the start of the Salem Haunted Happenings Grand Parade on Oct. 2, 2025.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, New Bedford, MA - 11/7/2025: Donna Doyon held Nimitz, one of the family cats, as she brought him inside to prevent him from slipping out the Doyon family home’s front door on Tuesday morning, Nov. 7, 2025, in New Bedford. The record 43-day government shutdown left The Doyon family and millions more who depend on federal safety net programs in a wave of uncertainty. Utilizing SNAP food stamp benefits, heating assistance, and PACE Head Start education for their youngest, Archer, the family has been living on a single income since Donna, who had worked as a grocery store cashier, injured her leg over a year ago. Her husband, Gerry, drives trucks full time but said he’s considering a second job to keep up with bills while Donna waits for medical clearance to return to work.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Providence, RI - 12/14/2025: Providence city councilman John Goncalves, Senior Deputy Majority Leader forWard 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Raynham, MA - 11/1/2025: Fred Baker takes a look inside his butcher shop as his father brings his truck in carrying a customer’s deer in the bed on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. When Fred Baker fractured his spine in a motorcycle accident in 2009, 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 (using a mono-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 (MassWildlife) which offers disabled hunters an opportunity to get back out into the woods.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/30/2025: Tim Kennedy (center) lifted Fred Baker’s hunting blind for him, so he could get into position at his designated hunting spot on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/30/2025: Fred 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/30/2025: After 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/30/2025: Fred Baker watched as MassWildlife biologists and 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. Baker said 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 used to do, before getting injured.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Raynham, MA - 11/2/2025: “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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Raynham, MA - 11/23/2025: Maria 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Raynham, MA - 11/2/2025: Discarded 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 on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. At the Camp Edwards location this year, one of five sites across Massachusetts, five hunters shot two deer over the three-day hunt. Compared to the state average — where around 20 percent of licensed hunters get a deer — the paraplegic crew does well, said Jason Zimmer, southeast district supervisor for MassWildlife. “All things considered, it’s pretty impressive that they have the success levels that they do,” Zimmer said.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/31/2025: Fred Baker waited for MassWildlife employees to arrive 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 half since 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, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Kevin Bradley, Whittier Regional Vocational Technical high school's head football coach raises a fist and cheers with his players in the school's home locker room before leading them to a victory against the Lowell Catholic Crusaders on Sept. 18, 2025 in Haverhill, MA. Kevin Bradley has never been a quitter. The 64-year-old believes that when you quit once, that habit sticks with you for your entire life. As the longtime athletic director, football coach, and girls’ basketball coach at Whittier Regional Vocational in Haverhill, he’s pushed athletes to their breaking point, but ensured they never break. This season meant more to Whittier football coach Kevin Bradley than any win he’s ever secured. As he battled tongue cancer, Bradley received an outpouring of support from the team, school, and community.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Kevin Bradley gave a pep talk to his players during a scrimmage against Pentucket Regional in West Newbury on Aug. 29, 2025. He coached while undergoing a mix of chemotherapy and radiation. He travelled to Massachusetts General Hospital five days per week for a mix of chemotherapy and radiation, including a grueling eight hour treatment on Wednesdays that forced him to miss practice.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Whittier players recited the Lord’s Prayer before the start of the State Vocational Large Super Bowl against Diman on Dec. 3, 2025 in Medford. Bradley expected this year would be like any other, but one day in late May, he experienced an unusual sensation in his tongue and had significant trouble eating and talking. He visited an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and eventually had a tooth removed, but the discomfort persisted.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Kevin Bradley and his wife, Ellen, waited to be called in for one of Kevin’s chemotherapy appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center on Sept. 3, 2025, in Boston. In mid-July, Bradley couldn’t talk at all, at which point close friend Dr. Dan Lyons advised him to go to the emergency room right away. Eight hours later, Bradley learned he had cancer. “It was like someone punched me right in the stomach,” Bradley said. “That was the biggest blow I ever had.”
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, A nurse prepared Kevin Bradley’s IV during his chemotherapy appointment at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center on Sept. 3, 2025. After his initial diagnosis, Bradley and his wife, Ellen, wept in the emergency room. It felt like his life flashed before his eyes, as he thought about his family, his new grandson, the school, and the team.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Kevin Bradley was greeted by current and former players Evan Losse and Jyzaiah Ferreira (left and right, white shirts) after a 44-28 victory during Whittier’s first home game of the season. Bradley rang the bell in mid-October following his final treatment, but will not know if his cancer is in remission until Jan. 30, when he returns to Massachusetts General Hospital for tests. Recently, he started eating “real food” after months of using a feeding tube, he said.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Kevin Bradley sat in the school's cafeteria during a pregame meal with his team Sept. 18, 2025. Tongue cancer is relatively common, and generally treatable through chemotherapy and radiation, so Bradley chose to stay positive.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, oWhittier football players (from left) Taylor Henderson, Miguel Robles, Ricky DiChicco, and Alejandro Domoracki, shared their excitement as they gathered to listen to their coaches following a 36-12 victory over Lowell Catholic in September. “Coach Bradley isn’t quitting, so we can’t either,” said senior captain DiChicco. “If he can show up for us after getting treatment in Boston, we have no excuse not to give 100 percent every time we step on that field. And it’s more than just football. These are lessons every player is going to carry for the rest of their life.”
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, “I didn’t know if I would make it … I was fighting for my life,” Kevin Bradley said to his team during an emotional pregame pep talk before the Massachusetts Vocational Large School Super Bowl on Dec. 3. Bradley steered the Wildcats to the State Vocational Large championship game for the second consecutive season.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Whittier's Ricky DiChicco (center) rushed during the fourth quarter of the Massachusetts Vocational Large School Super Bowl on Dec. 3, 2025, at Medford High School’s Hormel Stadium. “This has been a great season,” Bradley said, proud of his team for having made it to the championship.
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Miguel Robles (left) and Kasey Cook listened to Kevin Bradley as he addressed the team following a loss to Diman in the Vocational Large School Super Bowl.“They carried me when I was weak, and we fought for each other like champions,” Bradley said. He credits his resilient and courageous players for guiding him to the finish line. “This team was a brotherhood and a family. It was a Super Bowl journey that saved my life.”
1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, “God has a plan for us,” said player Ricky DiChicco as he embraced Kevin Bradley following Whittier's loss in the Vocational Large School Super Bowl.
![1st Place, Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year - Ben Pennington / Ohio University, Camp Edwards, MA - 10/30/2025: After 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/13_fps_bpat_parahunter_04.JPG)
