There are 416 students in the class of 2026. Most will never have the opportunity to meet each other, or the hundreds of other students at school. But each one has a story. They all have something that makes them individual. And they deserve to have their story told. LHS Publications has begun a project to achieve this: “Humans of Liberty.”
“It is a project we started this year, where we are trying to interview as many seniors as we can, in order to tell their stories,” Stella Nguyen (9), a student journalist said.
The project was inspired by “Humans of New York,” a project that has the goal to photograph random New Yorkers being themselves. Jonathan Hall, the publications adviser, has always wanted to implement a similar project into his program.
“I showed the students examples of how this guy went about his work,” Hall said. “Then some of the senior editors thought it out a bit more, and used another school’s organization of the project, and created this.”
Hall left the organization and implementation of the project up to his students, Will Nolan (12) and Ella Quinney (12).
“We built it up from the ground,” Nolan said. “I never understood how comprehensive it is to manage a project like this. We have to contact the teachers, set deadlines, get good stories and photos, edit all the stories, and so much more.”
The “Humans of Liberty” articles are being written by the introduction to journalism class. The purpose of having newer students write the articles is to get them accustomed to interviewing people they do not know.
“This project has helped me to learn how to adjust my interview,” Nguyen said. “It has shown me how to shift questions while interviewing.”
Ultimately, publications hopes to use this project to spread their coverage of the student body, telling every student’s story. However, with hundreds of seniors and only a couple dozen reporters this is a lofty goal for them to achieve by graduation.
