“I am ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille!” Christine Kirchir exclaimed as she bounced over to the camera on the second floor of the University Center at Nova Southeastern University. In a mere 30 seconds she managed to contort her face into all kinds of expressions full of excitement, silliness, and a little attitude. The finance director has been working for Nova in the College of Healthcare Sciences for about 20 years and is also an alumna.

“It’s intimidating because you think, well do I look OK? Do I look stupid? Is this going to be six feet of craziness?” she said “So it’s kind of scary, but fun at the same time.”

On a bustling Thursday, students, faculty, staff, and even presidents took some time out of their busy schedules to pose for Broward 100’s Inside Out Project. Photographer Andrew Milne was shooting while his assistant Eric Churchill helped the shy ones get more comfortable in front of the camera.

“The great thing about people portraits is that everybody’s different,” Milne said. “With this project particularly, it’s more about bringing out the person’s personality than what I want to project on them. So I try not to direct people too much. Because whether they are smiling or not smiling, pulling a face or using their hands it still reflects their personality, but that’s what I love about the uniqueness of this project.”

Nova’s message for this particular exhibit is called “Potential Realized” to reflect the budding brains and talent at the school, who are our future and just need some training, encouragement and direction to become great. It was inspiring to watch Milne help each person realize their potential by encouraging them to bring the personality that’s inside of them out.