Social media, yearbook photos, and quick hallway interactions give us tiny snapshots of other people, but never the whole story. The People Behind the Posts pairs voluntary student or staff portraits with one thing others might not know just by looking at them. Participants choose a prompt such as, "Something I'm proud of…" or "Something people misunderstand about me…" or "Something I wish people knew…" Their portrait and response become part of a hallway, library, commons, or digital display highlighting the people behind the faces we see every day. Keep it simple with phone photos and printed responses, or collaborate with photography and art students to create original portraits.

• Participants willing to be featured
• Camera or phone with a camera feature
• Selected interview questions/reflection prompts
• Printed photo/display materials
• Space for a hallway or school display
• Optional: photography, drawing, painting, or graphic-design students
• Optional: QR code or digital gallery

We make assumptions about people from what we can see: their clothes, friends, activities, social media, reputation, or role at school. But every person has experiences, interests, struggles, accomplishments, relationships, and identities that aren't immediately visible. This activity practices recognition, understanding, inclusion, and acceptance of identity by inviting participants to see each other as fuller, more complex human beings. The goal isn't vulnerability for vulnerability's sake — participants decide what part of themselves they want others to see more fully.

1. Get permission first. Identify where the finished portraits will appear and confirm your school's requirements for photographing and featuring student or staff pictures.
2. Choose your prompts. Offer several options so participants control what they share. Avoid requiring personal, sensitive, or difficult disclosures.
3. Invite participants. Ask for volunteers from different parts of the school community. Think beyond your immediate circle: athletes, artists, club members, new students, staff, students who aren't involved in activities, and people you'd simply like to know better.
4. Create the portraits. Take simple phone photos or collaborate with photography students to create more intentional portraits. Art students could also draw, paint, or digitally illustrate participants.
5. Collect their words. Ask each participant to complete one prompt in their own voice. Keep responses short enough to read while walking past the display.
6. Build the campaign. Pair each portrait with the participant's response and create a consistent format for the collection.
7. Share it. Display the portraits during Dignity Week in an approved school space or digital platform. Add new portraits throughout the week if you'd like the collection to grow.

Your activity organizers should create their own interview questions/reflection prompts, but here are a few to get the ideas flowing. Remember — keep questions reflective, not something that requires deep disclosure.

• Something I'm really good at
• Something I could talk about for hours
• Something that always makes me laugh
• Something I love that surprises people
• A place where I feel most like myself

Remind participants to only share what they are comfortable with.

• Something people might not guess about me
• Something people sometimes misunderstand about me
• Something I've worked really hard at
• Something that's harder for me than people might realize
• Something I've changed my mind about
• Something I wish people knew about me

• I feel like I belong when…
• One way someone has made me feel seen
• Something I wish people noticed more often
• I feel most understood when…
• One thing I wish people were more curious about
• Something I hope people remember before making assumptions about someone

Turn the project into a collaboration across photography, art, graphic design, journalism, yearbook, or other media classes. Photography students can create portraits, artists can draw or paint participants, writers can help capture short stories, and design students can create a consistent visual identity for the installation.

Instead of displaying the portraits for only Dignity Week, create a growing gallery that stays up throughout the semester or school year. Add new people regularly and intentionally feature different corners of the school community. You could even pair participants who don't already know each other: one student interviews another, a photography student takes the portrait, and an art/design student prepares the final piece. The process of making the exhibit then becomes part of the connection-building.

Start with 10 people and one prompt. Take portraits with a phone, print them on regular paper, add each person's response underneath, and hang them together in one approved school space. No professional photography, elaborate design, or digital campaign required. Ten portraits can still tell ten stories that people might not have known before.

Full designed PDF with the complete prompt list — see the download button above.