‘What Up Group’

A brilliant idea can sometimes only be a click of the shutter button away. Jake Coryell, a fourth-year landscape architecture student at NDSU, never imagined that a simple, “silly” picture pose could result in a successful and growing group page on Facebook.

Last semester, Coryell went on a vacation to Mexico. One day he decided to take a picture with a crazy pose also known as a “what up pose.” Coryell decided to make that photo his Facebook profile picture for a long time.

“People saw my updated picture on Facebook and began texting me ‘what up’ photos of their own. It was a way to make fun of my picture,” Coryell said hysterically.

After going to New York City a while ago and seeing a lot of iconic places there, Coryell and a couple classmates thought up the idea that referenced back to the image he took in Mexico displaying his “what up” pose. The idea was to make a Facebook page where people could send “what up” photos of themselves in cool places they travel to or are located.

Two other NDSU students besides Coryell thought up the Facebook group, Adam Olson and Dustin Hochhalter, both fourth year landscape architecture students just like Coryell.

“The group has blown up since its creation about a month ago,” Coryell said. Through Coryell, Olson and Hochhalter’s ingenious idea, people who join the group sending “what up” photos at an astonishing rate. “We have had 70 photos put up in the last month,” Coryell noted.

People are catching on to this idea and joining the Facebook group. The group members classmates in Europe studying abroad, and the groups past professors are sending in “what up” pictures of themselves from trips in Africa.

“It is awesome to see involvement from a variety of different people,” Coryell said.

The group has a bunch of different goals for their Facebook page. One of their goals is to someday create posters and/or t-shirts or other items you could sell that consists of all individual “what up” pictures in the group in silhouette format. They would then sell this for a profit and donate the money to a non-profit organization in the F-M area.

Coryell also inspires to one day be on the Ellen DeGeneres Show due to the success of the “What up Group” on Facebook.

“Invite your friends and have them invite their friends,” Coryell expressed. “The final goal of the group is to get as many members as possible. The more pictures, the more recognition the group will get.”

They say pictures can mean 1000 words. Through your help in joining their Facebook group, your pictures can mean sharing ‘what up’ NDSU. If you would like to join the “What Up Group” on Facebook, log onto: http://www.facebook.com/gro