On an April Friday morning, Ben Piechocki went from high school senior to senior citizen.
Wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset, the Adams High School student, who graduated in May, wasn’t seeing from his perspective—he was seeing from Roberta’s, an individual with early-onset dementia. Transported to a virtual world, Piechocki found himself in a kitchen, picking up objects and opening cupboards.
The experience is part of "The Roberta Project," a VR program designed to help users better understand someone living with dementia by offering a chance to see through the eyes of a single individual.
“You are not just someone with dementia, you are playing specifically as Roberta, who has her own thoughts, feelings, family and life," said Adam Heet, digital projects specialist at the Hesburgh Libraries’ Navari Center for Digital Scholarship. "We didn't want it to feel like a video game or a caricature, so we focused on building a framework that told someone's individual story, and living with dementia just happens to be part of that story.”
The project, which began in 2024, is a collaboration between REAL Services’ Alzheimer's and Dementia Services of Northern Indiana, Community Health and Clinical Partnerships within Notre Dame Research and the Hesburgh Libraries Navari Center.
“This project has brought so many experts together,” said Jessica Brookshire, director of community health and clinical partnerships at the University of Notre Dame. “We connected local Alzheimer's and dementia professionals with VR specialists in the Hesburgh Libraries to develop a realistic representation of how individuals with memory deficits experience everyday life.”
Seeing everyday life through Roberta’s eyes
Near the beginning of the VR experience, the phone rings in Roberta’s kitchen. Her husband barks from the next room, “Are you going to answer that?” After finding and answering the phone, Roberta hears her son on the other end of the line asking, “What took so long?"
"You have to react to how people treat you,” Heet said. “How does your husband in the other room talk to you about answering the phone? What about the emotional inflection of your son as he says, ‘Why did it take you so long to pick up the phone, Mom?’ We wanted to start with some frustration so that anybody who goes into the experience realizes this is going to be a situation where some people are not going to be helpful.”
On the phone call, Roberta learns she is supposed to make a casserole for her granddaughter's birthday party. To do that, students need to navigate three distinct moments of frustration for Roberta: locating ingredients in her kitchen, finding missing ingredients at the grocery store, and going through checkout.
“In every situation, there's someone who gets frustrated and someone who is patient,” Heet said. “The frustrated reactions provide Roberta with self-doubt, while those who are patient provide her with a little bit more dignity.”
Using VR experience to build awareness
The idea behind the scenarios and interactions is to give students a better understanding of how to respond to individuals like Roberta when they encounter them in their daily lives.
“It is part of our initiative to make our community more dementia-friendly,” said Angel Baginske, director of Alzheimer's and Dementia Services of Northern Indiana. “We thought one of the best places to start is with our young adults who are entering the workforce. Whether it’s bagging groceries at a local supermarket or working at a fast food restaurant, they are likely to come into contact with people with dementia. Hopefully, this will give them insight into how those living with dementia are feeling and lead to better interactions.”
The VR portion of "The Roberta Project" is still in testing. When finished, it will be a 10-minute experience that hopefully leaves the user with a little more understanding of what someone like Roberta encounters every day.
“I think it's important that youth experience something like this,” said Piechocki, who plans to study neuroscience at Indiana University this fall. “Showing them a little bit from Roberta’s viewpoint brings a lot more understanding about her life.”
The VR experience will be paired with a curriculum that Baginske and her team hope to bring into middle and high school classrooms. Additionally, Notre Dame stakeholders expect this resource to benefit students in the University’s expanding Neuroscience and Behavior undergraduate degree program.
“We are using convenient, fun and educational technology for something that is emotionally edifying and will hopefully strengthen the core fiber of our community,” Heet said.
The program and curriculum will not only teach students about dementia but also how to communicate effectively and respond with empathy in everyday situations.
“The importance of this project is its translation back to our community,” Brookshire said. “South Bend is moving to be an age-friendly community. So, I think that helping our young people understand what someone with dementia might be going through makes it easier when they have those interactions with those individuals in real life.”
From South Bend classrooms to a national audience
"The Roberta Project" will officially launch in October 2026 at the Midwest Dementia Summit in South Bend. The event draws professionals from across the nation and presents new tools, techniques and products related to the field.
“This project benefits the local community, and it has the potential to be expanded beyond our region to provide this important dementia awareness and empathy training to students across the country,” Brookshire said.
Baginske hopes the summit is just the beginning of the impact "The Roberta Project" can create through student education. It starts with everyday moments at the grocery store. Beyond that, she hopes it will serve as an educational resource to spur change for the future of dementia care.
“We know dementia care can be better,” she said. “My ultimate goal with this is that we're starting with these young people who have a voice to make the changes in dementia care for their parents, themselves and future generations. That is my ultimate goal. It’s a big one.”
This story was originally published on the Hesburgh Libraries website.