Context and Purpose
Through photography and personal narratives, this exhibit highlights what wellbeing looks like in these students’ daily lives, including their material circumstances, relationships, and personal sense of fulfillment. This page provides background on the project, explains the different types of wellbeing, shares why this work is important for our campus community, and outlines the ethical approach taken in working with student co-researchers.
About the project
The Supporting Immigrant-Origin Student Wellbeing Project is a Photovoice study. In this qualitative methodology, participants take photographs representing their experiences in response to prompts provided by the facilitator and then discuss the meaning of their images with fellow group members.
Two cohorts of students were brought together and given prompts related to their experiences of different types of wellbeing. This study uses WoodHouse and McCabe's (2018) 3 Dimensional Human Wellbeing Framework. The framework suggests that human wellbeing lies not only in what people have or in the fulfilment of desires, but in what people can do and be. This framework "well-being is defined as a state of being with others, which arises where human needs are met, where one can act meaningfully to pursue one’s goals and where one can enjoy a satisfactory quality of life."
Because the students are co-creators of knowledge in this project, they are referred to as co-researchers instead of participants.
What are the different types of wellbeing?
Woodhouse & McCabe's (2018) framework identifies 3 dimensions of wellbeing:
Material wellbeing- the objective material circumstances of a person. This includes but is not limited to having a safe place to live and rest, food to eat, clean water to drink, and clothing to protect you from the elements.
Relational wellbeing- how people engage with others to meet their needs and achieve goals. This includes but is not limited to your peers, friends, work supervisors, teachers, mentors, and family members.
Subjective wellbeing- subjective evaluation of one’s own life, and the meanings and values ascribed to the processes one engages in and the outcomes of those processes. This part of wellness covers the idea that although someone may have material wellbeing they may not feel fulfilled or satisfied with their current situation. Subjective wellbeing could include access to gainful employment, religious insitutions, and recreation as well as one's feelings about if they are treated fairly or in an equitable way in their work and private life.
Why this project matters
Immigrant-origin and migration-affected students bring unique experiences, perspectives, and strengths to our campus community, yet their voices are often underrepresented in research and institutional decision-making. Traditional studies of migration-affected youth have largely focused on deficits, such as mental health challenges or barriers to access, rather than on the everyday ways these students navigate life, cultivate relationships, and pursue personal fulfillment. This project shifts the focus toward a strengths-based understanding of wellbeing, highlighting how students experience material, relational, and subjective wellbeing in their personal and academic lives.
By using photovoice, this exhibit allows students to express their experiences on their own terms, capturing the complexities, challenges, and triumphs of migration-affected emerging adulthood through images and narratives. Sharing these stories with the campus community not only honors the agency of participants but also fosters empathy, awareness, and dialogue. In doing so, the project encourages administrators, faculty, and peers to better understand the diverse experiences of immigrant-origin students, ultimately striving to contribute to a more inclusive, supportive, and equitable campus environment.
Methods and ethics
This photovoice project explored the experiences of material, relational, and subjective wellbeing among immigrant-origin college students in the Midwest.
Photovoice is a participatory research method that empowers participants to capture and reflect on aspects of their own lives through photography and accompanying narratives. By giving students a platform to document their experiences, this approach centers their voices and perspectives rather than interpreting their lives from an outside viewpoint.
Co-researcher involvement and consent
Seven students voluntarily participated as photographers and co-producers of knowledge. They were provided with guidance on ethical photography, including respecting privacy and avoiding images that could identify others without consent. Co-researchers reviewed and approved all photographs and captions before publication on this website. Their participation was fully voluntary, and they could withdraw at any time.
Ethical considerations
We took care to ensure that the project respected the dignity of co-researchers and minimized risk. Photographs focus on everyday experiences and strengths rather than hardship or need, reflecting the co-researchers' own priorities. All content was reviewed to avoid stereotyping or exploitative representations.
Transparency and accountability
This section also serves to explain how the project was conducted, including co-researcher recruitment, data collection, and image selection. By documenting these procedures, we aim to be transparent with viewers about how the exhibit was created and the ethical principles guiding our work.
IRB approval
This study was approve by the UNL Institutional Review Board. IRB number 20250424474EP. Date of Approval: 9/16/2025
Positionality of the principal investigator
I am a White woman from a rural area in western New York, and I grew up with limited exposure to cultural diversity. My personal connections to immigrant experiences include family friends who were seasonal migrant workers and my mother-in-law, who immigrated to the U.S. and whose experiences have shaped my awareness of the challenges immigrant families can face. While I share some commonalities with participants, most notably being a first-generation college student and navigating higher education, I know that my background differs in important ways that influece my work and how I interpret data: I am not migration-affected, I am not a person of color, I do not have first-hand experience of having a parent or loved one who immigrated to the U.S., I did not grow up in the Midwest, and I am somewhat older than the students participating in this project.
Professionally, I am a doctoral student specializing in Global Family Health and Wellbeing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, with a background in psychology as well as child, youth, and family studies, My previous research experiences include working with immigrant-origin college students and refugee and immigrant community health workers. I have also volunteered with refugee- and immigrant-serving organizations such as the New Americans Task Force. These experiences inform my perspective while reminding me that I approach this project as a cultural outsider, which requires deliberate attention to trust, rapport, and ethical practice.
To address the potential influence of my positionality, I have been transparent with my co-researchers about my personal and academic background, the goals of the study, and the ways their contributions would be used. I prioritized confidentiality and emphasized that co-researcher voices, experiences, and interpretations would guide the research process. Rather than relying on my own interpretations to identify themes, I followed a participatory approach modeled after Zhang (2020), centering participants as co-researchers in identifying and interpreting findings. I also sought to reduce structural barriers and acknowledge power dynamics by providing compensation at a living rate and creating opportunities for participants to co-create knowledge in ways that respect their agency and expertise.
I am always happy to further discuss my positionality or motivations behind the study. Please feel free to use the contact me form on the homepage to reach me. Thank you.
