Herriman’s population has more than tripled in the last 13 years, with more than 65,000 people of all ages and backgrounds calling Herriman home. Mayor Lorin Palmer is thrilled with the development and values the diversity, but said it has come with a downside.

“We’ve been so busy growing, things have happened so fast, we're losing that community feel a little bit,” Palmer said. “So anything we can do to bring this community together to listen to other people's voices.”

University of Utah student Alexander Hill has an idea to restore some of that small town connection, enhance community engagement and reduce divisive contention. His research project, called Humans of Herriman, is a youth-led storytelling initiative to collect stories of Herriman residents of all ages and backgrounds.

“The hypothesis of the project is high schoolers and community members will be more engaged civically and with the community if they know each other's stories,” Hill said.

Hill has enlisted the help of Mountain Ridge High School’s DECA business club officers to help execute the project. Hill, who was a student in Mountain Ridge High School’s first DECA club six years ago, was confident in the students’ abilities.

Kennedy Haymond, Sadie Miles and Angeles Acosta, all experienced business students, recruited student volunteers to conduct the interviews, which they will then transcribe, translate and publish.

The stories they collect will be shared on the project’s Instagram page @humansofherriman, shown in a public display at City Hall, preserved in the Utah Historical Society’s archive and published in a book—in both digital and hardcopy formats, and in both English and Spanish—by the Friends of Herriman nonprofit organization.

Volunteer interviewers and interviewees of all ages and backgrounds are needed to help collect as many community voices as possible by Oct. 31. Project details and participation permission forms can be found on Instagram @humansofherriman. Send questions, or suggestions of people whose story you think would make a great addition to the collection, to [email protected].