Pulitzer Center Update June 30, 2025
Pulitzer Center Helps D.C. Students Tell Their Stories at 'Everyday DC' Photo Exhibit
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“The most important thing I learned in this project is how photojournalism stories extremely impact our country by bringing awareness,” Eiliyah, a student at Capitol Hill Montessori in Washington, D.C., reported after a visit to see her photograph in the ninth annual Everyday DC student photography exhibition. “After this project, I am inspired to continue working as a photojournalist and create more stories bringing awareness.”
Eiliyah is one of over 200 students from 10 D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) who engaged with the Everyday DC photojournalism unit during the 2024-2025 school year. "Everyday DC" is a Cornerstone unit designed by the Pulitzer Center and DCPS Arts in 2016 and taught by D.C. Public Schools visual arts teachers with the support of Center staff and journalists each year.
This year’s unit culminated in the ninth annual Everyday DC photojournalism exhibition, which opened at the Charles Sumner School in downtown D.C. on April 10, 2025.
Over 671 people visited the exhibition before it closed on June 5, 2025, including 75 students from five participating schools who visited the exhibition for half-day visual storytelling workshops hosted by Pulitzer Center grantee Ashonti Ford and Center staff.
“The most important thing I learned in this workshop is to capture what truly matters,” Brookland Middle School student Lyam said in a survey after a visual storytelling workshop hosted in the exhibition space.
“The most important thing I learned from this project is that pictures can tell stories,” Calvin, a student at Capitol Hill Montessori @Logan, said in the survey. “After this project, I’m inspired to pay more attention to photos and pictures to find their meaning.”
The survey found that 79 percent of students who participated in the Everyday DC workshops hosted by the Center and Ford agreed or strongly agreed with the statements, “I learned about the steps a journalist takes to put a news story together” and “I learned how to compose a photo that tells a story.”
Inspired by the Center-supported Everyday Africa project, Everyday DC asks students to analyze how Washington, D.C., is portrayed in the media, what role images play in defining how audiences understand places and people, and how they can compose images that more accurately visualize their everyday stories and experiences.
Students cultivate media literacy, photography, caption writing, and curation skills over the course of several lessons. They are then tasked with composing images that combat dominant media stereotypes about their city by telling their own stories.
Pulitzer Center K-12 Education staff wrote the "Everyday DC" unit plan in 2016 in partnership with the visual arts team at DCPS to align with its new arts framework, and the unit has been shared with over 2,000 students from over 15 D.C. public middle schools over the past nine years. This year’s exhibition was curated by eight students from MacFarland Middle School, who also wrote the opening text for the exhibition.
“When you walk around the exhibit, we hope you’ll put yourselves in the shoes of the people in the photos … Make sure to see their perspectives on their lives,” Angie, a student curator from MacFarland, said while welcoming the over 100 people attending at the exhibition opening on April 10. “D.C. is an energetic place. It’s not just serious with all the monuments and stuff like that. People have fun lives. Do you see that in photos?” Click here for a slideshow of the over 200 images featured in the exhibition.
The seven-lesson "Everyday DC" unit introduces critical thinking, photography, caption, and curation skills through interactive activities and engagement with instructional videos developed in partnership with Center-supported journalists. This project is made possible by D.C. Public Schools, the Pulitzer Center, and the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives.