With a campus of over 30,000 students it is nearly impossible to know every person you pass on your way to class. The student run organization, Humans of College Park (HoCP) has taken on the task of getting to know about the lives of University of Maryland students.
This idea is based off of the increasingly popular website, Humans of New York (HoNY). The concept is to get to know people in the area and share a side of them that some people would not know previously.
“HoNY is cool and interesting because in New York you can see anything from the Naked Cow Boy to a homeless person,” sophomore Letters and Sciences major Faryn Brown said. “I would never be able to know about these type of people without reading the HoNY page.”
Graduate Minh Pho started the Humans of College Park Facebook page early September of 2013. When Pho graduated he passed on the position to Kathryn Klett, a sophomore broadcast journalism student.
“Honestly it’s not just me, this is something that is meant to include everyone- it’s a community thing,” Klett said. “We here in College Park are all in this together.”
Klett has a team of people who help to contribute to the page and has recently opened up submissions to everyone on campus. On the Facebook page, anyone can submit a person’s story for HoCP
This Facebook is like the HoNY website because it allows students to get a peak into the lives of people they did not know previously. The pictures of the people chosen are crisp and capture emotion. Along with the picture, there is a small piece of wisdom from someone in College Park.
“Through this I get to know more about the people who I share a campus with,” sophomore family science major Emily Klinger said. “Even though they are strangers we have a common thing connecting us: College Park.”
When Klett searches for someone to interview she looks for people who catch her eye and are doing something interesting. She thinks everyone has a story to tell and the trick to getting a HoCP story is to approach the people willing to share a moment with her. From this experience, Klett is amazed at how readily people open their hearts to those who show they care.
Siblings, couples, drummers and slack-liners are just some of the people featured on the site. The idea is to showcase some of people at the University of Maryland campus. The Facebook page says that everyone has something to say if you just listen.
The HoCP Facebook page has over 1,500 likes and is continuing to grow. Klett said that people should be ready for HoCP because you never know what good you can cause by just taking a moment to reach out to your neighbor.