During the week of Oct. 22, Wheaton took part in an internationally recognized portrait and storytelling project called Dear World. On Wednesday, Oct. 25 and Thursday, Oct. 26, Wheaton students and faculty gathered in the Balfour-Hood Atrium to share their stories and have their portraits taken.
Dear World invited students to share stories from their past, then develop a meaningful message behind their stories. After writing this message somewhere on their body, students were photographed. Students could then verbally share the significance of their photograph after the final portraits were presented.
Sharmeen Inaam ’20, a student who took part in the project, said, “Dear World was an incredible experience for me personally. It brought stories and photography into one beautiful project to inspire conversation, which I think is crucial for people to express their humanity and their stories.”
The Dear World live show was held in the Cole Memorial Chapel on Thursday, Oct. 26. It featured stories from around the globe previously captured by Dear World, as well as stories shared by members of the Wheaton community.
Hundreds of members of the Wheaton community attended this event. The campus heard stories from places such as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Dear World has visited hundreds of college campuses across the nation, capturing over 70,000 stories, and has been featured on USA Today, CNN, NBC and Buzzfeed.
Wheaton plans to welcome projects similar to Dear World on campus in the future.