Karen Muramatsu, a senior and triple major at Southeast Missouri State University, has created a photography project titled "Humans of SEMO." Muramatsu's project has garnered nearly 700 likes since its creation and is similar to photographer Brandon Stanton's popular blog "Humans of New York," which chronicles the lives of people through portraits and uses captions telling their stories.

Muramatsu, who is a big fan of Stanton's work, said what sets the two projects apart is the people being interviewed.

"'Humans of New York' interviews people in the New York area, and that is a huge city with its own culture," Muramatsu said. "I am basically focusing on people at SEMO, which is a smaller population."

Muramatsu plans to bring people together at Southeast by sharing their stories and focusing on cultural diversity.

Muramatsu's own cultural background is diverse. She is majoring in political science, global studies and French. Muramatsu is Brazilian, but comes from Japanese and Italian families. At the age of 5 she moved to Japan, and while there she attended a Brazilian school. She came to the United States to broaden her perspective about life.

Muramatsu said the idea for "Humans of SEMO" came during her internship last summer at the Cape Girardeau City Hall.

"I was doing research on the diversity of our city," Muramatsu said. "Diversity is something that I am really passionate about, and it is a topic that I believe is very important for us to make our world a better place."

Muramatsu said when she saw there wasn't a "Humans of SEMO" page for the university, she thought it would fit very well on the campus because of its cultural diversity.

"I am the type of person that loves to create 'new' things and bring new ideas, so why not?" Muramatsu said.

Muramatsu believes everyone has a story to tell.

"Sometimes I hear about stories and I go after those stories," Muramatsu said. "Some other times, I just meet people randomly on our campus and ask them about their stories, especially during events."

According to the "Humans of SEMO" Facebook page, Southeast's president Dr. Carlos Vargas was the first person to be profiled. In the profile, Vargas spoke about how he didn't intend on becoming a president of a university, but the goal came later on in life.

"As I continued to move in my professional career and advanced, it got to the point that I felt that I developed ideas myself of what the university should be like," Vargas said in the profile.

Muramatsu said her experience with the project so far has been amazing and she hopes it will bring people together, because many people tend to judge others by their appearance without knowing their story.

"Just to think that those people have to go through so many difficult things in their lives and they are still great people," Muramatsu said. "It made me look through my own life in a different angle."

With the growth of the project so far, Muramatsu said people have reached out to her personally to have their stories told.

"I share the stories for them and having that participation is great," Muramatsu said.

When Muramatsu graduates in May, she plans to turn the project over to members of Unified Young Leaders, an organization she started at Southeast.

Muramatsu said she was able to start "Humans of SEMO" because of UYL.

"Through United Young Leaders I could really improve my leadership skills and believe more in myself," Muramatsu said.

Muramatsu wants the project to continue growing through UYL and the university's diversity to continue being shared.

"Unified Young Leaders is a non-profit organization to create a network of leaders to inspire and lead changes in their community."

Darris Whitehead, president of Unified Young Leaders said.

There are no requirements to join UYL, but Whitehead suggests people be open to speaking their mind and embracing diversity.

"Since I've been in the club I've seen students from every corner coming, all having something they're passionate about or at least wanting to discover what that may be," Whitehead said.

Whitehead spoke positively of Muramatsu's project and her time being a part of UYL.

"Mostly I believe from her experience with the club and its core values, Karen goes for what she's passionate about," Whitehead said.

To view Muramatsu's page and read the "Humans of SEMO" profiles go to facebook.com/HOSEMO/.