Capturing the unique stories and qualities of Aggies, Humans of TAMU seeks to recognize diversity across the Texas A&M campus.
Modeled after the popular Humans of New York site, which has more than 11 million likes on Facebook, Humans of TAMU is an online project started by a committee within the organization One Love.
The group gathers photographs and quotes from their classmates, which are then posted to the project’s Facebook page, keeping the style of the original project.
Since its creation in October, the Facebook page has garnered more than 2,000 likes.
Nicole Elmurr, director of the university connections committee within One Love and political science junior, said the project wants to dispel the idea that A&M lacks a diverse student population.
Elmurr said the organization hopes to make a difference through the stories it tells, even if it is just for one person.
“If you can find something you can relate to on the Humans of TAMU page and maybe it makes your day a little bit better,” Elmurr said. “Maybe you smile and you’re having a rough day or you find something you can relate to — I think that’s extraordinary.”
Charley Wehbe, environmental studies senior and co-director of the university connections committee, said the project has helped make it easier to approach other students on campus.
“Because we are a pretty friendly campus, it’s really easy to just say ‘Howdy’ to someone, but it’s really hard to approach someone and to ask for a picture and start talking to them,” Wehbe said. “I like that it gets progressively easier. People just kept jumping in, we were just automatically being accepted. I was surprised at how easy it was to just put yourself in the middle.”
Humans of TAMU has encouraged the freshmen within One Love to approach fellow students on their own rather than in a group, Wehbe said.
“It builds confidence and it’s just nice to know that other people want to talk to you, even if you just want to make a friend or start up a random conversation in a line,” Wehbe said. “I think a lot of people focus on pulling out their phone and texting instead of just talking on the bus or going to class and talking to someone random.”
The student photos and accompanying quotes provided by the project are thought provoking, said Sara Swetish, psychology senior and follower of Humans of TAMU.
“With [A&M] being such a large university, it’s virtually impossible to get to meet everyone,” Swetish said.
Swetish said she believes the Facebook page strengthens and unifies the Aggie family, because it allows the readers to have a better understanding of the diversity on campus.
“Every student, professor and faculty member is just human,” Swetish said. “We all make mistakes, live through adversity and experience joy at some point. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in life and forget that each person is walking their own journey. In my opinion, having a blog like this puts life back into perspective.”
Kayla Marek, who follows both Humans of New York and and Humans of TAMU, said the project gives a glimpse into someone else’s life.
“This blog helps show peoples’ stories,” Marek said. “I like the blog because I’ve always loved learning peoples’ stories. People are interesting.”
Humans of TAMU encourages people to send a photo with a quote to the group’s email account.