The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to one current and former WKU student for their work with the Chicago Tribune.

Dominic Di Palermo and Armando Sanchez were both photojournalists who contributed to the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Operation Midway Blitz and the subsequent counterprotests.

“It doesn’t feel real, to the point that I’m looking at the Pulitzer website, it doesn’t make sense,” Di Palermo said. 

Di Palermo is a current senior photojournalism student at WKU and a former photo editor at the College Heights Herald and current Talisman staffer. He is the first person at WKU to win a Pulitzer Prize while still a student.

Armando Sanchez is a WKU graduate and former College Heights Herald and Talisman staffer.

Together, Sanchez and Di Palermo are the 39th and 40th Pulitzer Prize winners to be alumni of WKU Student Publications. At least 22 Pulitzer Prize-winning projects have had WKU photojournalism alumni as contributors.

“It’s really cool to see that legacy, too, of Western still putting out good photojournalists,” Sanchez said.

Di Palermo said his time at WKU and Student Publications “shaped” him and prepared him for his internship at the Chicago Tribune.

“I hadn’t covered something big, intense before, and so I think the first time I really covered a protest that started to get more tense was at Western Kentucky,” Di Palermo said.

Professor and Coordinator for Visual Journalism and Photography at WKU James Kenney said he was “extremely proud” of the pair.

“It really reaffirms my utter joy in teaching these students and seeing them succeed,” Kenney said.

While excited about the win, Sanchez said he is also hesitant to celebrate.

“It kind of brings it all back to the front of watching people get torn apart, and communities get tear gassed and people be brutally detained,” Sanchez said.

Di Palermo recalled taking photos of a 5-year-old girl and her parents being detained by ICE and struggling to process what he was photographing.

“It still hits me sometimes to think about all the different things I’ve photographed and seen,” Di Palermo said.

Di Palermo said he uses prayer and reflection to help process everything he photographs. 

He also said he does his best to remember, “I’m there to tell stories and that it’s not my job to get involved subjectively.”

Kenney echoed the importance of storytelling as a reason WKU’s photojournalism program stands out.

“Our goal here is not necessarily to make Pulitzer Prize winners, but storytellers,” Kenney said.