Humans of Forest Park reveals students’ personal stories

A new journalism project at Forest Park highlights the joys and fears of students without exposing them to the scrutiny of their peers.

Done in the style of New York photographer Brandon Stanton’s hugely popular Humans of New York Facebook page and blog, the recently launched Facebook page, Humans of Forest Park, features personal anecdotes by students as told to student writer Brianne Seffernick.

Brianne was slightly familiar with Humans of New York when she was elected to take the assignment by the journalism class the first week of school. “I was kinda familiar. I had seen a couple posts but I didn’t follow it to much,” she explained.

However, Forest Park’s journalism teacher Jessica Reinbold is a huge fan of Stanton’s work and had heard of another school that created its own Humans project. She thought it would be a great project to take on at Forest Park.

“Dr. Pund (Forest Park’s principal) has been working really hard to ensure all the students have a voice,” Reinbold said. “I thought it (HONY) tied in with Dr. Pund’s goal of giving students a voice.”

The style allows students to express their true fears and thoughts giving readers an eye into the reality that although each person’s story is unique, they all share in the commonality of the themes of love, fear, happiness, joy, gain and loss.

After stalking the Humans of New York page to assess Stanton’s the style, Brianne began taking photos and interviewing students. She didn’t like the initial results but is slowly developing her own methodology and style.

Brianne uses her phone or her mom’s camera to take candid photos of students. “I have followed my mom (Angie Seffernick) around a lot for her job at the monastery,” she explained.

Seffernick was the Sisters of St. Benedict’s official photoblogger.

“I kinda grew up in it and have always loved taking photos,” Brianne said.

When she finds a photo she likes, she will talk to the student. Interviewing has been a difficult part of the process though.

“I’ll ask a question to get a quote for the story and a lot of times they’ll (student) just kinda stare at me uncomfortably for a few minutes before they start to talk,” she explained.

Since the Forest Park and Ferdinand is such a small community, Reinbold decided to keep the subjects anonymous. That assurance has likely helped some students to expose some deeply personal stories.

I have had some very interesting stories since starting this,” Brianne said. “Even from people I have known since kindergarten.”

Reinbold hopes the project will help students to see other students in a new light. “I didn’t expect it to go over it this well. I am really proud of it,” she said. “I just want students to see each other as humans.”