Spring semester at William Jewell College means a lot of things for seniors, but for Pryor Leadership Fellows, it means it’s time to start the legacy project for 2021. This year the group decided on funding and turning a shipping container into a functioning learning center for MO Hives, with hopes for completion in early May. 

MO Hives is a local nonprofit that Legacy project champions, Kylee Newton, senior accounting and nonprofit leadership, and Megan Sprague, senior psychological science and nonprofit leadership major, interned with during the summer and fall. Founded in Kansas City in 2019, MO Hives works to bring education and excitement back to the honey bee. 

“By creating a healthy urban apiary model that can be duplicated in other Missouri cities, MO Hives KC will inspire communities, provide experiential learning opportunities, amplify community garden yields, increase bee populations, and beautify previously blighted property,” MO Hives shared on their website. 

Newton and Sprague both fell in love with MO Hives and their mission. 

“I was first exposed to MO Hives KC in my fundraising class here at Jewell,” Newton said. “I immediately connected with their mission to restore the bee population and make an environmental impact in KC. The founders of this amazing organization are making small strides everyday that have a huge impact.”

2021 Pryor fellows wanted to choose a project involving education, as COVID-19 has greatly impacted the freedom and productivity in the Kansas City education system. After this home base is built, it can be utilized for storage, field trips and community gatherings. The group hopes that this base will be a beneficial space for not only young students but the whole KC area.

On top of transforming the inside of the shipping container, Pryor Fellows are working to build a 12-foot surrounding deck with wheelchair access in order to support an outdoor gathering area. The goal is to use as many recycled and sustainable resources as possible – from seats to hooks – so Pryor can stay within budget and have a better environmental impact. 

“This project will impact everyone in the community,” Newton said. “Bees are vital. Pollinators impact the air we breathe, the beauty we see, and the food we eat. MO Hives is creating a space to sustain and grow the pollinator population. The completion of our outdoor education center will also open the door for opportunities to learn about bees and sustainable agriculture. This initiative will bring STEM back into the community.”

The fundraising and logistics committees have started a GoFundMe and designed shirts to raise a goal amount of $12,000. The group is also looking at hosting a larger event once the weather improves. The event would possibly involve food trucks and outdoor lawn games around the quad. Pryor Fellows plan to finish fundraising by mid-April, so the group can break ground on the project by the end of the month.

More specific details regarding future fundraising, events and the finished product will be available on the Pryor Legacy 2021 Facebook and Instagram pages.

During their senior year, the Pryor fellows build upon leadership experience they have gained throughout the three years of the program and complete a group legacy project. The 2020 Pryor Class Legacy project, a partnership with Kansas City’s New Roots for Refugees, has faced unexpected challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite having to move the Legacy project online and raise funds virtually, the 2020 Pryor class has risen to the challenge and demonstrated their critical thinking abilities. 

Mikaela Papageorgiou, senior nonprofit leadership, communication studies and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (ACT-In) major and legacy project champion, notes that despite the challenge of modifying the initial plans for the Legacy project completion, the senior Pryor class has adapted very well to the unprecedented circumstances. 

“It has been inspiring to see how everyone has banded together over the common goal of completing the Legacy project,” said Papageorgiou. “Our class has been really willing to adapt to online fundraising – which is really difficult.” 

The Pryor Legacy project is typically equal parts volunteering and fundraising. However, the 2020 Pryor class has had to postpone the build day and volunteering time at the farm site for a later date in the fall. Online fundraising is now the bulk of the project. 

McKenzie Gross, senior nonprofit leadership and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (ACT-In) major and project fundraising head, explains that online fundraising during COVID-19 is especially challenging as people are focused on the impact of the virus and are looking to donate to those related relief organizations. 

“We totally applaud those relief organizations and the work that they are doing for our communities, because it is definitely needed,” Gross said. “At the same time, I think it is important to consider the impact that COVID-19 has had on food and supply chains in our communities and to really think about the relationship between New Roots for Refugees’ locally grown produce and the challenges that we are seeing in grocery stores at this time.”

The 2020 Pryor class created “Fight the 19” – an online 30-day personal wellness challenge focused on benefiting mental and physical health as well as demonstrating compassion to the community.

A flyer was sent out to the William Jewell College student body in early April, and the Pryor fellows called the Jewell community to action. 

“Our hope is that you will join our personal challenge of wellness and resiliency while bringing awareness to our 2020 Legacy Project,” said the 2020 Pryor class. 

Papageorgiou describes the intention behind the initiative. 

“Fight the 19” was our push to show the community that we are still trying to finish out the Legacy project and get people united through that,” Papageorgiou said.

As a way to keep the Pryor fellows engaged, the “Fight the 19” initiative spurred the fellows to practice mental and physical renewal as well as compassion in the month of April and additionally, it provided a platform to raise funds. 

The Pryor fellows have been utilizing social media platforms and guerilla marketing tactics to raise funds, Papageorgiou explains. 

“Everyone has taken their own spin on it,” said Papageorgiou.

Through their continued efforts, the 2020 Pryor class has raised a significant amount for New Roots for Refugees. 

“At this time, we are working on wrapping up our fundraising campaign. We have raised over $16,000 already and we are working on the final push to our goal of $20,000,” said Gross.

Gross notes that while every Pryor Legacy project is always a learning experience for each Pryor class, the 2020 Pryor class undertook a significant challenge.  

“I know this class will walk away from this project with grit and determination,” Gross said.  “Making a large-scale project like this successful is no easy task, and this class has managed to do it in the wildest of circumstances. I am so proud of the dedication and determination that the Pryor class of 2020 has shown.”

Papageorgiou additionally reflects on the impact of this project for herself and the Pryor fellows.

“I have truly learned that when you are working with a team of passionate leaders there is no challenge too big,” said Papageorgiou. “I’ve been exposed to so many strengths of my classmates and learned how even more amazing they are than I already knew them to be. We have learned to adapt and grow together in ways we never imagined.” 

To support the 2020 Pryor Legacy project, you can check out the GoFundMe here and follow along on social media: Instagram: @pryorlegacynewroots, Twitter: @pryornewroots and Facebook: Pryor Legacy and New Roots for Refugees.

With springtime just around the corner and graduation not far behind, the senior Pryor Leadership Fellows have officially selected the organization they will partner with for their legacy project: New Roots for Refugees. 

New Roots itself is not a nonprofit. It is a program within the entities of Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas City and Cultivate KC. The New Roots for Refugees program provides refugees with the resources necessary to build upon strengths and experiences gained as farmers in their home countries and effectively transfer those skills to farming in a midwestern climate. 

The program was started roughly a decade ago as a means of removing the barriers that make it difficult for refugees to start their own businesses once they’ve migrated to the United States. These include financial restraints, illiteracy, language proficiency and networking.

The refugees involved in the program partake in classes which include English as a second language (ESL) courses and other lessons in midwestern farming. The program lasts four years, beginning with the assignment of a quarter acre plot of land at Juniper Gardens and culminating in a graduation. 

New Roots has graduated 21 refugees who still operate farm businesses within the Kansas City area. Three of the graduates began different types of businesses, including the first Burmese restaurant in Kansas City. 

The products grown on these quarter acre plots by New Roots farmers are sold at various farmers markets throughout the Kansas City metro area, through Farm Share, and at several restaurants. For a full list of farmers markets and restaurants with New Roots products, interested parties can visit their website.

The goal of the 2020 Pryor Legacy Project is to help New Roots for Refugees transition from its 7-acre Juniper Gardens Training Farm, a public housing site in Kansas City, to a 50-acre plot of land. The 2020 class will act as a foundational support system while the program prepares the land for use. To ease the financial strain of this transition, the Pryor class has set a $20,000 fundraising goal. 

As a previously established need identified by the current New Roots for Refugees program manager, the new farm will allow the program to not only serve more refugees but to expand the types of farming they are able to do. The Pryor Legacy Project, Rooting for Refugees, will help to implement phase one of a four-year plan with the long-term goals of creating a community center, a certified kitchen, a café and a farm store all located on this site.

Mikaela Papageorgiou, senior nonprofit leadership, communication studies and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (ACT-In) major, is the project’s champion. Papageorgiou proposed the collaboration with New Roots for Refugees in December and made it through several rounds of voting before the project was ultimately selected in January. 

Papageorgiou’s introduction to New Roots came early in her college career when a Cultivate KC AmeriCorps member came to speak in her nonprofit class on behalf of the program. She admits that prior to her introduction to and involvement with New Roots the presence and plight of refugees in Kansas City were virtually unknown to her. 

“[I was] just unaware of the populations we have here as well as all of the different organizations that are fighting to help refugees,” Papageorgiou said. “I think when we hear the term refugee sometimes we think that you have to go to places across the world to help. So no I didn’t know really about them.” 

Her knowledge of and passion for the issue has grown exponentially in recent years. Since hearing about the program, Papageorgiou has interned with New Roots and communicated with them while creating her Journey Grant proposal to ensure that any knowledge gained about refugees and organic farming followed her back to Kansas City. 

She explains that refugees are legal, documented residents of the United States who have been forced to migrate due to war, persecution or natural disasters in their home countries. Approximately 500 refugees are resettled in Kansas City each year with roughly 15,500 refugees currently residing in the city. These refugees primarily migrate from Somalia, Sudan, Myanmar and Iraq. 

“I think it’s important to know just how diverse the Kansas City area is and how important it is to get involved with those in the community who have faced such atrocious hardships in their home countries and trying to embrace them as our community members as best as we can,” said Papageorgiou.

There are plenty of opportunities for community involvement in the project both on and off campus. Phi Gamma Delta will be donating a portion of the funds raised at its annual BOTAB event to the 2020 Pryor Legacy Project, and “Rooting for Refugees” shirts will be available for purchase in the Yates-Gill College Union in March. 

On April 1st the Pryor class will be hosting a panel at which audience members will receive more information about New Roots as well as agricultural entrepreneurship opportunities in Kansas City and organic farming standards. Jewell Day of Service will provide opportunities for community members to work with New Roots, and a community build will take place in late March or early April at the new farm site.

More specific details regarding fundraising and events to take place will be available on the Rooting for Refugees Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If Jewell students want to donate or learn more about the project they can talk to any of the students of the 2020 Pryor class.