PALO ALTO, Calif. – Humans of Harker editors-in-chief Sidak Sanghari and Jonathan Xue gave a presentation at JEANC Norcal Media Day at Palo Alto High School today alongside Humans of Harker Managing Editor Ella Guo and Aquila editors Lily Shi, Tiffany Zhu and Kairui Sun.
The Humans of Harker project began in 2015, inspired by photographer Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York. They set out with the goal to cover the stories of all Harker seniors and increased diversity of coverage to the full class in 2017.
The team went over the three steps of the process, planning and logistics and the different delivery methods: online, on Instagram and in the print Humans of Harker magazine. Afterwards, they provided examples of Humans of Harker portraits in addition to presenting a video profile. While walking through the assignments process, they talked about how they tend to match reporters to seniors they do not know.
“It speaks to the community aspect of Humans of Harker,” Sidak said. “We’re not just a publication within our staff. We’re serving our school. Building bonds in our community and making new friendships is really what Humans of Harker is all about.”
Senior Sasha Effernchik attended the presentation and enjoyed its depth in detail. He appreciated the guide to taking environmental portraits in particular.
“I liked the structure of the presentation,” Sasha said. “Every person had a specific thing that they knew well about. They understood what they were talking about, so it was a really interesting presentation.”
Eastside College Prep’s features editor Rashel Naranjo Arellano (11) recognizes the impact that projects like Humans of Harker can have on a community.
“Seeing the different steps that our class can take to accomplish a much bigger project like the Humans of Your School program is very important,” Rashel said. “It’s cool to see that other schools have the idea that we should cover all students’ stories.”