The Face Behind “Owls of Temple University”

A Temple University freshman started his very own campus-wide social media project.

Jeremy Elvas is on a mission to document stories of people who make up Temple’s diverse student body. The project takes form as an Instagram account called Owls of Temple University (@owlsoftemple).

The freshman journalism major describes his project as a spinoff of Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York (@humansofny) Instagram account, which embodies the same mission. Stanton roams the streets of New York City to interview and photograph strangers and share their stories on the Humans of New York account.

With the tagline, “Temple University, one story at a time,” Owls of Temple University aims to tell stories that only scratch the surface of the unique faces that make up Temple’s student body.

“It’s easy to feel like you’re just a nameless face in the crowd because of how big Temple’s student body is, and I wanted to use this as a platform to give individuals a voice – especially underrepresented voices,” says Elvas.

While attending Cheltenham High School, Elvas conducted a similar social media project among his peers. Upon starting his first semester at Temple, he figured the best way to get his photography hobby into motion would be to start the project here at Temple.

Elvas says his account has been receiving a lot of positive attention.

“Some of the people that I’ve photographed have made a bunch of connections through it. People have reached out to them because what they said in their interview was super interesting,” says Elvas.

Owls of Temple University is currently the only active Instagram account with this purpose at Temple. The account currently has over 650 followers and has been active for two months.