Updated Sept. 17: The "One of a kind, like you" website is now live, with a lead video, and our first set of photos, profiles and videos of our campaign subjects (students and alumni, faculty and staff). We've also corrected Shazib Haq's degree; he earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

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By Dateline staff

We have some people we’d like you to meet, people who are “One of a kind, like you.”

They are students and alumni, faculty and staff — more than two dozen people in all, each one captured on video — each telling the story of his or her UC Davis experience, stories about being an Aggie, about making the world a better place.

“They have unique, engaging stories demonstrating the traits of being an Aggie,” said Sunny Teo, creative director in the Office of Strategic Communications.

They are speaking on behalf of all of us — the “you” in “One of a kind, like you.” This is the next iteration of the UC Davis engagement campaign that shows how each of us is one of a kind and part of a kind, the kind that works together and grows together to improve health, enrich lives and help feed the world.

The project is officially underway with banners on light poles around the campus, and a series of giant posters on Bainer Hall’s south wing, along the path between Tercero and Mrak Hall. See slideshow.

By the end of this week, this website will be reinvented with new profiles and videos, and a campaign video focusing on our go-getters, change makers and problem solvers.

The profiles and videos are being made available to the colleges and schools, so they can help the university spread its message far and wide. “UC Davis is defined by its people, using their unique backgrounds and perspectives to make a tremendous difference in the world,” said Tom Hinds, marketing director. “These videos are so personal, and yet what these Aggies are doing is so relevant to society.”

A student’s ‘aha’ moment

The giant posters on Bainer Hall depict seven of our campaign subjects, one of them being Shazib Haq, who graduated in June with a Bachelor of Science degree in neurobiology, physiology and behavior. As an optometry intern, he had an “aha” moment just like he had when he started wearing eyeglasses at age 11.

This time he saw an 8-year-old’s face light up when she put on her new glasses. “It’s striking to me that something as giving a child a pair of glasses can impact all of the opportunities she’ll have in the future,” Haq said. “She inspired me to give other children every chance to succeed.”

Christine Bruhn, Cooperative Extension specialist emerita, tells a story from her childhood, when she and her family drove to the California coast to pick wild blackberries. “My mother brought canning jars along and she’d make jam right in the kitchenette of the hotel room where we were spending the night,” says Bruhn, who grew up to be an expert in food science and technology.

More large posters will be put up in the Mrak Hall lobby and in the  dining commons, and other displays are in the works.

The campaign subjects are representative of all segments of the UC Davis community, so the colleges and schools and other units can use the posters and videos that align best with each unit’s mission.

Rose Truong ’15, for example, represents the College of Engineering, Study Abroad, the Big Bang! Business Competition (Graduate School of Management) and TEDxUCDavis.

During her freshman year, while studying in Ecuador, she saw villagers choose eyeglasses based on the frames — the ones deemed to be the prettiest. “Lacking an optometrist, they needed an inexpensive alternative to help them,” Truong says. “So I built one. I call it the VisionFinder.”

Teo, the campaign’s creative director, said of Truong: “She found a need and she went for it. That’s the spirit of the Aggie.”

That’s the spirit of one of OUR kind.

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