A photo of Nina Henderson Provost M. Brian Blake, PhD, used to promote the Instagram contest in which students submitted photos of their favorite unique study spots on campus.

The most creative study space on Drexel’s campus is in a dorm room on the third floor of Myers Hall — but it’s not on a student’s bed, or at a desk. Instead, it’s on the small ledge above the room’s doorway.

That’s where Christian Ear, an international business undergraduate student in the LeBow College of Business, hit the books to claim first prize in an Instagram contest highlighting the best of Drexel’s unique spots to study. To get to the ledge, he had to climb the dresser in his room and somehow bring up a chair and a foldable table to use as his study table (pretty creative, no?).

The hard work paid off: Ear won the social media competition hosted by Nina Henderson Provost M. Brian Blake, PhD. The contest, which ran for about a month starting Oct. 25, encouraged students to share photos of their favorite unique spots to study on Drexel's campus using the hashtag #drexelspaces. Sixty-two posts were made on the social media site using that specific hashtag.

The contest was created when Blake and Vice Provost of Finance and Administration Thomas J. Quinn wanted to gather a list of places where Drexel students study that aren’t necessarily designated as places to study.

“Drexel continues to improve and develop study spaces for students on a regular basis,” said Quinn. “Our goal is to provide as many as possible with natural light and access to power. This contest helped us identify spaces that are unknown to students so they can start using them and the administration can potentially enhance them in the future.”

Ear doesn’t usually study up on his dorm room’s ledge, but he says he’d consider it if the ceiling was a little bit higher.

“I thought of this for the contest because I realized that not everyone had that little loft area,” he said. “It was very much unique to Myers’ third floor, so I had a feeling it would be something that not everyone was able to do, which would make the picture stand out from the others.”

As first-place winner, Ear won a Drexel swag bag containing a Drexel-branded blanket, an embroidered beanie, a coffee cup and a decal.

Second-place winner Walter Babiy, an undergraduate civil engineering student in the College of Engineering, hiked up to the roof of Main Building for a picture next to the Joseph R. Lynch Observatory, which hosts the largest telescope in Philadelphia (a 16-foot Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain).

“Hoping that all that studying by Philly's largest telescope makes me feel smart enough to not fail these Physics Exams,” he captioned the photo.

“Because I'm on co-op and I commute, I seldom get a chance to study on campus, but when I do get a chance, I try to sit up here for a bit, weather permitting,” said Babiy. “If the weather stays nice, you will be sure to find me there studying for that physics final.”

Babiy received a Mario the Dragon bobblehead, as did third-place winner Emily Hostetter, an undergraduate psychology major in the College of Arts and Sciences.

She took a picture reading in a study room on the 13th floor of University Crossings overlooking Main Building, Gerri C. Lebow Hall, Stratton Hall, the Paul Peck Alumni Center, and the Korman Quad. The book she is reading in the study room, which she uses to work on a group project or study alone, was “for a particular class that has challenged me to think above and beyond myself, connecting myself to cultures and ideas I never would have before, which is what I believe is an important part of the Drexel experience,” she said.

Plus, Hostetter explained, “I thought to post this picture for the contest because I thought that it would be a great photograph showing the area of campus devoted to many classrooms, research labs and administrative offices where many amazing things take place!”

Other creative spaces submitted by students included a table next to the biowall in the Papadakis Integrated Science Building, a movie-poster-adorned room in the Cinema and Television department, Adirondack chairs on the green space in the Korman Quad, and under the skylight in the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life.