{"id":12031,"date":"2026-07-21T20:05:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/?p=12031"},"modified":"2026-08-02T17:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:06:33","slug":"keeping-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/07\/keeping-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping in flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Before showing his first photograph, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist John H. White stopped in front of each section of the McCormick Foundation Center\u2019s main auditorium, making eye contact with each seated cherub and asking how they were doing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For Jane Kim of Pasadena, California, the simple gesture meant far more. She said White reminded her of her grandfather, who died last March.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe had a bit of a language barrier, but we went on walks together, and my grandfather would make eye contact and say hello to everyone he saw,\u201d Kim said. \u201cOnce (White) got to me, he hadn’t even said hi yet. We literally just made eye contact, and then I started crying.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Throughout the lecture, White captivated cherubs by pairing his photographs with personal reflections on life. Drawing from his decades of experience behind the camera, White encouraged students to \u201ckeep in flight\u201d and pursue their dreams. He also reminded them of the responsibility of photojournalists as the eyes of humanity and future generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWhat you do is beyond your lifetime,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t tell the story, who\u2019s going to?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

White\u2019s message resonated with Ignas Petrus of Chicago, who applied it to his own aspirations in journalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cJournalism is an ever-changing profession,\u201d Petrus said. \u201cAt the end of the day, if you choose this road, you have to have a lot of faith in what you do and the validity of your work. \u2018Keeping in flight\u2019 is not just trusting the process, but trusting the values that you hold and the dreams that you have to accomplish whatever your heart desires.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Celine Zhang of Cupertino, California, was one of the two cherubs who brought a camera to photograph White. He invited them onstage for a demonstration, challenging them to be the first to press the shutter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThis was probably one of my favorite lectures of the program, and getting to be immersed in it was really rewarding,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cHe solidified my interest in photography by showing how powerful it is as a medium of storytelling and how much meaning it can convey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Community and academic associate Liam Barrett first heard White speak as a cherub in 2024, when Barrett said he was \u201cno great shakes at photography.\u201d Hearing the lecture again this summer bolstered his appreciation for both White\u2019s photography and the stories behind it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cPhotography is a much bigger part of my life now, so seeing him again was a very full-circle moment,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cHe is still taking photos left and right and finding a huge amount of joy in it, so I continue to be inspired by him and his work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist John H. White inspired cherubs through stories, photographs and compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":11701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[691],"class_list":["post-12031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-story"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":691,"user_id":342,"is_guest":0,"slug":"pitts26","display_name":"Adelle Pitts","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46619e6ec525a0a87e1d2e52f2f91885e7c1524a813e4d7b88e835d641a15c8e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Pitts","first_name":"Adelle","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12031"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12915,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12031\/revisions\/12915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12031"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}