School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

The country’s reckoning with social justice this year has put a spotlight on America’s memorials. Who gets to be remembered forever, and who tells that story?

Big monuments are expensive and immovable, and they can get bogged down in conflicts over cost and design.

Now, a cross-disciplinary team at Arizona State University will use technology to create a new kind of monument that is both universal and intensely personal, called the Augmented Reality Children’s Memorial Marker.

Editor's note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable fall 2020 graduates.

Ever since she was very young, Alexis Klemm was fascinated by the study of the mind and human actions. That captivation first came from watching TV dramas such as “Law & Order” and “Criminal Minds.” Then, as a middle and high school student, she began taking courses in psychology, forensic sciences and sociology.

Christopher Rearley spent his life beating the odds. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 6 and was permanently using a wheelchair by 11. By the time he started college at 18, his doctors, knowing that his breathing capacity was only 20% of normal, said he would live only months, a year at most.

That prediction didn’t hold up. He started community college, then came to Arizona State University, defying his doctors’ prognosis.

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