The Harpswell Foundation has two dormitories in Phnom Penh that provide room, board and leadership training to up to 80 young women while they attend university. The foundation invited me to live and use photography to tell the stories of their students during my last visit to Cambodia. During that time, I attended classes, study sessions and performances alongside the women as well as sharing meals, music and relaxation. Soon enough, I was accepted as another inhabitant and permitted to photograph freely. One of the highlights was a trip to one student’s rural home village, where I met and photographed her with her farmer parents and her younger sister, who also aspired to attend university. The images I shot were used mainly to liven up Harpswell’s website and bring it to life with spontaneous, emotion-filled, storytelling images. 

Huot Kimhuoy and her family Pau Cheng, (mother) Huot Long (father) Kimhorng Huot, sister, Lun, (grandmother) Roeung (grandfather) on their farm in Cambodia. Kimhuoy is a senior at Institute Technology Cambodia majoring in food technology and bioengineering. Her parents are farmers who don’t have higher education.