‘I never thought that at 21, some of my best friends would be 99 and 100’

Kayla Smith was looking forward to taking a World War II history class in college two years ago when she learned on the first day of school that the class had been canceled with no explanation.

“I was so disappointed, because I’d really been looking forward to learning what the Greatest Generation went through,” said Smith, 23, a history and archaeology major at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., who graduated last year.

As a college senior in 2023, Smith said she still felt cheated over not being able to take the World War II class. She thought there had to be a more hands-on and interactive way to learn about the war than reading books and watching movies.

“I started thinking, ‘There must be some World War II veterans who are still alive,’” she said. “I wondered if maybe I could find a few, and they could tell me about the war.”