Crafting a Curriculum to Promote Adolescent Flourishing Through Photography

SeeingHappy, a nonprofit organization that seeks to use photography to enhance happiness and flourishing, tasked a team from the University of Pennsylvania to develop a well- being curriculum targeting adolescents. This curriculum, Happiness + photography, is rooted in evidence that suggests engagement in the arts and humanities, specifically photography, contributes to well-being through a variety of mechanisms, namely: creating, connecting, noticing, reframing, and storytelling. In addition to targeting adolescent students, the curriculum is geared toward educators for use in the classroom. Experiential learning and personal reflection are central in each lesson plan. With this curriculum in hand, SeeingHappy is positioned to develop further insights about the connections between photography, happiness, and human flourishing, and to make meaningful contributions to the emerging field of the positive humanities.