The people and places of this town are familiar to me. At least, that’s what I thought. In doing this project, I feel that I have formed a deeper connection to this town. The lives and stories of those who live beside me in our small town have influenced me more than I initially thought they would. After hearing what our community shared with us, I realized how grateful I am to be a part of Springville.
Though Springville may be small, it is filled with people with big hearts and ideas. The small town Iowa mindset is shared throughout our community; it is one of constant support and encouragement.
Growing up in such a small town has taught me the importance of community and compassion. Interviewing members of our community this week has opened my eyes to a history of Springville that is much deeper than I originally thought.
After Alex and Keith interviewed our school principal, I went back and did a follow up on him and his thoughts about project.
During most of the interviews, we had gotten to learn more about these people’s “personal” lives, but for this one, I had asked a few questions about his thoughts and feelings about our project. He had the same thoughts as most of my group and me, we’d like to keep “Human of Springville” going. He believes That this was a very useful and a great opportunity for us to learn about our community and grow together. As our small community grows more, we hope to keep this publication, and all that comes with it, going.
Currently in the school of Springville, the whole middle and high school are participating in what we call “Oriole Pride Week”. Oriole Pride Week is a variety of hands-on projects that students may not be able to get a chance to do in the course of a school year through the classroom. Each class contains a mix of 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. The class I was put in is called “Humans of Springville”. Humans of Springville is an inspiration based off of “Humans of New York”.
Humans of New York is made up of the founder Brandon Stanton and I would imagine he would now have editors, however he started by himself trying to reach his goal of 10,000 photographed New Yorkers. HoNY has become very popular via social media and now has millions of followers. Humans of Springville differs from HoNY in the aspect of people. HoNY interviews random people on the street while we have either known the people being interviewed or have been citizens of Springville that have lived here for a very long time. Aside from the people, the quote and photograph aspect remains the same. The way the students in my class got their quote was to interview them about their profession, family, and childhood. In my opinion the best way to get a quote is too dig deeper into their life and keep a conversation going about them and not constantly change subject or time period in their life. For example during an interview you wouldn’t want to jump from their childhood to the present because they might have trouble focusing or trying to think more about their answer. The only time it would be acceptable and formal is if you were comparing the two time periods and asking a question about how they differ or how they compare. The quotes from my school’s project are much shorter and more silly than the quotes from New York. Most of the quotes from New York are more like a story from this person’s life. Brandon has been working on his project for many years and has a better idea of questions to ask and how to get right to the heart. Instead of asking, “What do you do for a living?” or “How’s your day going?”, he asks “What are you most afraid of right now?” or Who is the most influential person in your life?” Although questions are important, the body language and energy that you give off is more crucial during the interview. “I’m genuinely interested in what the person has to say”, explained Stanton after being asked how he gets people to open up to him. I have learned a lot about Brandon himself and Humans of New York.
I think both projects are very interesting and even some of the interviews from Springville turned out amazing as well. I also think it is harder to get to the heart of the person being interviewed if you have previously know them and have already conversed about other things that don’t have anything to do with their past or an interesting event that happened in their life. It also might be harder to interview someone that is very young and not focused on what you’re asking. That’s why interest and attention is important while talking to someone. I know I wouldn’t want to talk and open up about my life when the person talking to me acts like they don’t want to be there and aren’t intrigued about what I have to say.
By the end of the week I will have learned many efficient ways to carry a conversation and really get to know somebody. I took a lot of interest in this project and the work of Brandon Stanton. I will continue to follow and read stories about the Humans of New York because of this class.
This blog is the home of many posts revolving around the people of Springville. The Humans of Springville is a collection of narratives from people in our community. The posts on this blog are written by students at Springville Secondary School that have participated in this project.
For school, I got to interview a few people from my home town and learn a little more about them.
I interviewed Mrs. Murphy, our school counselor. Today, we learned she’s more than just a counselor. We learned about silly and slightly weird stories of her as a kid and even some as an adult. When she was a kid, she sort of lived under her kitchen table and liked to be called Lassey, like a dog. I think that’s one of the oddest stories we’ll ever get out of her. She wasn’t sure if it was true but that’s what her parents say.
The kinds of questions we asked were about her work and personal life. Things like how she got interested in her current career, I thought it was interesting that she was an English teacher before. Murphy said she had come from a long line of educators and her mother was a social worker which came in handy for being a school counselor. Murphy said when she was a teenager, she’d never be a teacher just because her parents said she should be one. She was “very stubborn and rebellious.” Eventually, she really did get interested in teaching. She grew up in a small town and she likes small towns way more than big towns.
She has traveled a lot, just about every state from Montana to the East Coast, Europe, but her favorite place was Nantucket. She said she “enjoys just sitting on the deck reading a book all day.” I think some of us could’ve agreed. She really wants to go to Australia which I think would be nice. She says after she retires, she might start her own mini golf course or a personal shoe/ bag shopper.
Most people believe that they are who they are and nothing really affects that, but not Mrs. Murphy. She thinks every person in her life every main event, all of the things in between are what made her who she is today. Everyone she talks to on a daily basis has made an impact on her life. As a kid, her Grandmother use to say “Always carry a cough drop and a handkerchief.” Now, of course, this doesn’t make sense at first, but it’s kind of saying “Always be prepared.” I thought that was a nice and wise quote. She also lives by these very inspiring words, “ Travel more, worry less.”
Usually, students don’t like their teachers, but because of these interviews and learning more about them, I think I’m gonna start liking her more. She’s a very smart, positive and inspiring person. At first, I was very dreadful about this project, I usually don’t like talking to people or learning about them. This was actually fun and I enjoyed getting to know the teachers, student, and just everyday people of Springville. This showed that there’s so much about people that we see almost everyday. Until today, I would’ve never thought of Mrs. Murphy being “stubborn” or being such a great dog impersonator.
Humans of Springville 