Deep Center’s Action Research Team Visits Washington, DC:
A Journey of Voice, Vision, and Youth Power
In late April 2025, Deep Center’s Action Research Team (ART) climbed into a 15-passenger van at the crack of dawn and set out on a multi-day trip to Washington, DC. For more than half of our team members who are seniors, this was their last hurrah trip with ART, but not the end of their journeys as youth researchers, cultural stewards, and creative thinkers. Funding for this opportunity was made possible through partnership with the Sunstone Foundation.
Action Research Team visiting the United States Capitol, April 2025.
Our WHY
ART youth traveled to DC to strengthen their civic knowledge and deepen their understanding of cultural narratives. Team members explored the National Mall, visited museums, and had conversations about art, history, memory, and who is heard and seen in the story of America.
They also went to share the findings from their Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Project with scholars and professionals with connections to national stages. This year’s research was designed to create an answer to the question “what is meaningful learning?”, according to young people in Savannah. Their findings highlight the value of peer-led learning, the impact of taking young people’s physical and mental well-being into account, and the importance of diverse topics.
Preview of Action Research Team’s YPAR Report on Meaningful Learning. (Click image to see full report.)
The capstone of their time in the nation’s capitol was connecting with DC-based arts nonprofit, Critical Exposure, where the team met other young people exploring questions about education, community, and equity through youth organizing and arts-based research methods. Critical Exposure uses photo storytelling to train, amplify, and mobilize DC youth to build their collective power. The combined teams traded skills (and a few laughs), and generally felt bolstered by the knowledge that good work is happening alongside our team’s.
Building Connections Across Place
At every stop, ART youth wove in themes from their YPAR research on what makes learning meaningful. Whether reflecting on the role of peer-led spaces, discussing inclusive histories, or facilitating get-to-know-you joybringers or World Cafe-style discussions with other youth, they showed how learning rooted in lived experience can shift our sense of community and belonging.
Deep’s Action Research Team and members of Critical Exposure together in Washington, DC, April 2025.
Another powerful element of the trip was witnessing civic life in motion at the nation’s capital. Team members talked to DC community organizers trying to get the attention of lawmakers heading into the Capitol, observed a small rally in front of the Supreme Court, and walked through the Senate office buildings—seeing firsthand how everyday people use their voices to share stories of their communities with people in power.
Civic education is a foundational pillar of ART, and in past years the team has traveled to Atlanta to observe Georgia’s legislative processes up close. But it’s one thing to intellectually understand a process and another to experience it, on a national scale. As one ART member noted:
I learned a bunch from the DC trip, which I didn’t expect. It was very fun, and the fact that I actually learned stuff was an enjoyable shock.
This is an endorsement we’ll happily take! Because as the young people in ART have been reiterating, meaningful learning doesn’t only happen in classrooms. Sometimes it happens in sculpture gardens, over meals with new friends, or while walking the marble halls of a city you’ve only ever seen on TV.
Get a Involved and Learn More
ART is a leadership program rooted in participatory action research. Young people can be invited to join ART by going through a short application process. To learn more and nominate a young person – including yourself – to become a part of the 2025-2026 ART cohort, click here