The Leadership and Legacy of Pope John Paul II

John Nguyen and Colby Wyatt

Senior Division
Group Exhibit
We came to choose this topic because we wanted to find a person that had a lasting
impact through their leadership and someone who impacted the world from multiple angles. We
came upon Pope John Paul II because of his legacy in Europe and how he brought Communism
to an end there and how he improved the Catholic Church to benefit the world rather than just
themselves. With all his enigma and teachings, he seemed like the perfect person to do our
project on.

When conducting our research, we tried to access as many primary sources as possible
about his time when trying to stop communism in Europe and reading about events that occurred
in that time of change and his travels to speak out against it. We also accessed clippings of books
written about his impact on the religious side of the Catholic Church and the outreach it had on
the community, especially through his teachings of inter-religious peace and that all life is
sacred.
When we decided how to present our project, we decided an exhibit would be the best
choice. Using an exhibit, the information we found on John Paul II could stand out to the judges
more clearly and the pictures that we found could be seen in context with the information. While
creating our project, we used a tri-fold design to spread out the information and divide the
attention of the viewers throughout the entire project. Also we put backgrounds behind the
categories of our project and the information to make them stand out to the viewer.
Pope John Paul II connects to the topic of Leadership and Legacy because of his impact
on the Catholic Church and Europe, especially his homeland of Poland. His leadership of the
Catholic Church over the extended period of time he was Pope was instrumental to the church
and Europe and he built a lasting legacy that will carry on for lifetimes. The effects he caused
within his lifetime are why he was a leader that created a legacy.