After an entire summer of planning, Juniors Nagi Vergara and Dantin Duhamel finally debuted their new Facebook page, “Humans of Temple City” on Sept. 9. Since then, the page’s popularity has skyrocketed and presently holds over 600 likes.
The inspiration behind the “Humans of Temple City” page is the widely known “Humans of New York.” Both collections have a common desire, which is to share various peoples’ uplifting stories with others around them.
The pair was motivated to create this page towards the beginning of the summer because they absolutely loved the concept. When school started, Vergara and Duhamel decided to launch the page.
“We just knew that we wanted to post great content, and hopefully it gains some popularity,” Vergara said. “It’s only been a while since the page has come out and I’m already surprised about how much traction it has gotten.”
On Facebook, Duhamel and Vergara joined efforts to advertise “Humans of Temple City” with the help of their fellow yearbook staffers.
“I thought it was great how Brandon Stanton [the owner and photographer of ‘HONY’] created great pieces with nothing but simple pictures and a great caption,” Vergara said. “Our staff is working really hard to capture that essence of depth and heart that he has in his work.”
The page will post at least two insights a week and update frequently. As of now, there are six posts, featuring not only the students of Temple City High School, but the teachers as well. One of the people “HOTC” has featured so far is Junior Tiara Quintana.
“I got a lot of positive feedback from people and had countless peers that I didn’t even know come up to me,” Quintana said. “They said that I did a really good job and they loved the post.”
As far as the selection process goes, everybody has a fair shot at being featured.
“At times, the people are chosen by me and the yearbook staff,” Duhamel said. “But we will also do random drawings as well.”
The goal behind “Humans of Temple City” is to recognize and share the stories of others, about what they do in life or what they want to achieve in the future. The co-founders also intend for the page to shine a spotlight on people who would usually fly under the radar.
“Temple City is full of great people, and we simply just want to showcase them,” Vergara said. “Whether it be an in-depth story on a student/teacher, or a simple, lighthearted quote, we want our content to exhibit the amazing personalities we walk by every day.”
The duo had no idea that the page would be so well received by the people of Temple City and was greatly motivated by the large amount of positive feedback. They wish to further advance the reader base and expand the horizons of this project.
“Hopefully it will impact readers to understand that everybody has a story, a belief, a personality,” Duhamel said. “Everyone is unique.”
TCHS School Newspaper