OSHKOSH, Wis. (WFRV) – Everybody has a story to tell, and for the past decade, students at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh have been willing to listen.
UWO lecturer Grace Lim created the ‘Humans of Oshkosh’ project about 10 years ago. Students go out in the community, talk with people, and share their stories for the project.
“Engage with the community through stories,” said Lim. “Teach them the power of storytelling and how these stories connect us as humans. These are humans of Oshkosh that have shared their stories of love and death and their happiest moments of their weddings. And then their saddest moments and everything in between.”
Over the past decade, Lim’s students have compiled stories from first responders, veterans, those experiencing homelessness, everyday people navigating life through the COVID-19 pandemic, among many other community members.
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Lim said in the past decade, they’ve accumulated about 4000 stories for the ‘Humans of Oshkosh’ project.
“I hope that my students learn that they are part of this community, and that this community isn’t just narrow, it’s not just their 10 friends in their dorm,” she said.
Lim and her current students celebrated 10 years of stories on Wednesday night at Oshkosh Public Library. She said the stories for the project this year have been library-focused to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Oshkosh Public Library. They also wanted to draw attention to the Polk Library at UWO and the need for funding.
Lim said that many students over the years have completed their ‘Humans of Oshkosh’ stories at local libraries in Oshkosh.
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“Everybody comes from really different places and you should never judge books by their cover because you never know what people have been through,” said UWO student Alex Flood when asked about what students learned from the project.
“It teaches you to go out and talk to people when it’s not very comfortable at first,” said UWO student Jeremiah Bender. “It helps me grow my skills at talking with strangers.’
“Stories are powerful and that we can share our stories with each other and learn from each other,” Lim said.
There’s a Facebook page that highlights many of the stories that are part of the project.
