As campus cleared out, Rice junior paid it forward with free senior portraits

Joy Wang captured students’ final photos before they left last week

Rice announced March 12 that students would need to move off campus due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Within the week, the Inner Loop was lined with trucks and moving vans. It quickly dawned on the senior class that these hectic days at Rice could be their last.

Joy Wang spent her last few days on campus capturing senior photos for those students whose final semester was cut short by COVID-19. (Photos by Joy Wang)

Many seniors captured the moment with an impromptu mock commencement ceremony and march through the Sallyport. Others looked to capture the moment with something more tangible: senior portraits. But with time running out, finding available photographers at the last minute proved a challenge.

McMurtry College junior Joy Wang was one of several Rice students and hobby photographers who rose to the occasion. After one of her fellow Murts mentioned how hard it was to find a photographer for group senior shots, Wang offered her services — but she didn’t stop there.

Already packed up and ready to move back home to Oregon, Wang had some free time before her flight on March 19. So on March 15, she posted an ad for free senior portraits on the popular Facebook group Rice Students Selling Stuff. She was booked up with requests almost immediately.

Rice seniors posed for early graduation photos on campus before they had to move out March 25.

“I imagined myself as a senior and I thought, it is so sad to have worked so hard for four years and there’s that one moment you’re working towards and suddenly you don’t even know if you’ll get it,” said Wang, who’s double-majoring in history and kinesiology.

Compounding the grief of potentially missing out on graduation, she said, is the swift finality of it all.

“You’re having to say goodbye to your friends as soon as possible,” she said.

Wang spent her final days on campus making sure those saying goodbye left with positive memories.

She took dozens of individual senior portraits, students posing across campus in their college stoles, caps and gowns, and just as many group photos; eight groups in total took Wang up on her offer. One session with a group of seniors from Jones College mushroomed when Wang ran into another Rice student taking complimentary senior photos for another group of Jones seniors.

“They all did one huge Jones senior photo,” Wang said. “It was really cute.”

“This whole situation also made me appreciate Rice so much more,” Wang said.

Back home now in Oregon, Wang is already attending classes online and adjusting to the two-hour time difference. She’s grateful things have worked out so far, even if it means finishing her semester remotely.

“This whole situation also made me appreciate Rice so much more,” Wang said. “I feel like Rice held on as long as possible and handled it in a very human manner.”

The seniors she photographed were also appreciative, she said, extending kindness — and some Venmo tips — that made her glad she could pay some additional humanity forward.

“I think about how many people I was able to help just through that one Facebook post,” Wang said. “For me, just being able to make even one person’s experience a little bit better is a really powerful thing — and I think that’s a really powerful thing for all humans to realize they can do.”