What is Humans of UIC?

Timothy Nguyen (right) began Humans of UIC to “create and spread campus spirit” though storytelling, photos and more.

By Timothy Nguyen

As a freshman, I decided I wanted to create something that would make students, alumni, faculty and staff feel proud to be part of UIC. That’s where Humans of UIC came in.

Humans of UIC was founded on the idea of the popular Facebook page Humans of New York. The purpose of the Humans of UIC Facebook page is to create and spread campus spirit through storytelling, picturesque campus photos, student organization photo shoots, funny memes and much more.

Humans of UIC has been around unofficially since summer 2013 but it became an official student organization in 2016.

The first year that the Humans of UIC page was live, no one knew about it.

The following year, as I was browsing through my newsfeed, I saw a blog called Humans of UIC created by Kruti Soni from UIC Radio. I contacted Kruti and we formed a syndicate of interviewers. There were around five or six of us running around taking pictures of UIC students, faculty and staff.

The page blew up and gained 4,000 fans in the first two weeks. The extraordinary growth of Humans of UIC was due to the passion and commitment of our team. I featured hundreds of my UIC friends on the page and was able to capture the great diversity of UIC.

Through my photography, I was able to make a positive change on campus, and I encourage you all to do so, too. Everyone deserves to participate in a campus organization.

We all deserve a voice, because we are all Humans of UIC.