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Stronger Together has partnered with St. Michael’s Veterans Center to create a digital reflection guide for their new memorial park to foster connections between residents and elevate veterans' voices and stories in the greater Kansas City community. Through interactive media and digital storytelling, the team seeks to reshape how we view those men and women who have served our country and deepen our appreciation for their many sacrifices

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MEET OUR TEAM

Emerson Kraus

My name is Emerson Kraus, and I am the leader of our group “Stronger Together.” I managed our team’s workload and researched for our project. I am passionate about leading by example by encouraging others to always  put out their best. This leadership experience has provided me with insight on how leadership works in a professional setting.
Our project has evolved a lot from the beginning of the semester until now. Our initial focus was on mental health and suicide prevention in veterans. While we kept the core of our project the same, it became more about improving quality of life without needing professional involvement. Because of this, we reached out to our partner Saint Micheal’s Veteran Center, and we asked them how we could improve the quality of life of the veterans there. From there, we were tasked with creating a reflection guide for the monument they are building. The goal of these guides is to deepen the understanding and appreciation of veterans, and also, elevate the voices of veterans.
I took Designing Real World Impacts for its opportunity for practical learning and leaving a lasting impact. Because of its practicality, I was able to gain real life experience in the ups and downs of creating a solution/product. Rather than just talking about it. The  actual experience makes what we learn stick with us for the rest of our lives. If it was just taking notes and writing papers about the process of creating a solution/product, I never would have grown from the challenges that we experienced. Leaving a lasting impact has always been important to me. Proven by my existing philosophy of “If I helped one person during my time on this earth, then everything was worth it.” Being given the opportunity to create a lasting impact is something that I will always remember and be grateful for.

Lily Krumm

Hi, my name is Lily Krumm, and I'm currently a senior at Notre Dame de Sion High School. I enrolled in Designing Real World Impacts because I wasn’t yet sure what I wanted to study in college. This class has been an incredible opportunity to explore how to approach real-world challenges and gain a glimpse of the business world. Through team-based, hands-on immersive learning, I've been able to build valuable skills in business and entrepreneurship, which helps me feel a few steps ahead before even entering my first year of college.
In this course, I decided to focus on veterans and military personnel, specifically on mental health, as this cause is close to my heart and deserves more care and attention. When I connected with classmates Elizabeth and Emerson, who shared my passion for this issue, we formed our team, “Stronger Together.” Recognizing the prevalence of mental health struggles among veterans, we sought a specific area where we could make a difference. Partnering with St. Michael’s Veteran Center, we approached them with an open mind, asking for their input on what they felt would be most impactful for their facility.
Ultimately, we decided to create an online reflection guide to accompany the new Patriot Park monument garden. I loved the process of designing the website and finding stories and poems from veterans to share. It was a deeply meaningful experience to contribute to something so lasting and unique. I’m looking forward to seeing Patriot Park completed in the spring of 2025 and knowing that our reflection guides may offer comfort and connection to the veterans who visit.


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Elizabeth Vance

Hello! My name is Elizabeth Vance and I am a senior at Notre Dame de Sion High School. I chose to enroll in Designing Real World Impacts to improve my public speaking skills and gain experience in a professional setting. I have learned many skills from this class including how to craft formal emails, be comfortable with pitching in front of a large crowd, and to be creative with ideas.
In this class, I chose to focus on working with the veteran community. I had a personal connection to this topic as my grandfather served in Korea. My grandfather was one of the strongest people I knew and never asked for help from anyone, even if he was struggling. So, as my team and I started researching what the biggest need within the veteran community was, we came across St. Michael’s Veteran Center. We reached out to St. Michael’s in hope of finding a way we could make a lasting impact. They told us a way to help would be to help create a reflection guide for a new memorial being built on their campus called Patriot Park. We were given total creative freedom and got to work. Through our reflection guide we hope it will bring a sense of honor and peace to every person who visits the park whether that is a veteran or anyone. I look forward to having these guides adapt over time and create a space of honor for our veterans.